Large music festival proposed for Playfair Park in Missoula

But he’s got what appears to be a mountain of concerns from city council members and neighbors to overcome before he wins approval from the city.

Scott Osburn gave a presentation to the Missoula City Council’s climate, conservation and parks committee on Thursday to make a pitch for his festival. He’s trying to secure the city council’s permission to authorize the Missoula mayor to grant his company, Always On LLC, to host the festival for the next eight consecutive years. As part of the agreement, he would pay the city a guaranteed $50,000 for park repairs and upgrades along with a $70,000 contingency fund for any unexpected damage. The city would keep any portion of the $70,000 that isn’t used for repairs.

He showed an image to the city council members of his pitch for the concert.

“Join us for Missoula, Montana’s premier music festival, featuring world class talent, gourmet food and drinks, unique experiences and a vibrant community of outdoor enthusiasts, tourists and music lovers,” Osburn wrote on the slide. “Our strategy is focused on creating a festival that embodies the same principals (sic) as other iconic events such as Telluride Bluegrass, Newport Folk Festival, Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza — a legacy event.”

Osburn said he’s been putting on a festival in Dallas called Lights All Night for over a decade. He said that concert has generated $75 million in economic benefit to that city over the years.

The Missoula festival, which would be held for two days in July, would feature a “contemporary lineup” of Americana, easy listening and alternative rock artists, he said.

“We want to focus in on an older crowd,” he said, noting the festival would be ending at 10 p.m. each night and that they aren’t expecting the “things you’d see at a more raucous type of show.”

“A great emphasis will be made to ensure nearby neighborhoods are not impacted,” he said.

Osburn said he and his team are focused on sound mitigation, and they’ll be working with sound engineers to lessen the noise impact on the neighborhood. He said he’d work with neighbors in the vicinity to temporarily lodge them in another location if they can’t handle the noise. Osburn also said he and his team would be focused on traffic and parking issues as well as safety. There would be a “bar partner” on site selling alcohol.

“We’ll be watching the intoxication side of the festival,” he said, saying the event would have “surveillance technology,” gun-sniffing dogs, bag checks and a security team. The festival would take place on the grass portion of Playfair Park, where there are currently three soccer fields.

He said he an his team are experts at “mass gatherings” and “live safety.”

Shirley Kinsey, the city’s recreation manager, said she’s been working with Osburn for about five months to come up with a plan to mitigate damage to the park.

“This project started about five months ago,” she explained. “I was asked by administration — (city council president) Gwen Jones, the mayor (Jordan Hess) — to find a way to get to ‘yes.’ I took that to heart and I worked hand in hand with Scott Osburn to see if we couldn’t find an appropriate spot to do this music festival. I had a lot of concerns, so I started with this project in terms of ‘you need to convince me.’ I didn’t think we had a venue that would be appropriate for this many people and it wouldn’t impact it to the point where it would never recover.”

Osburn said he looked at other venues in town, including the baseball stadium, but determined that Playfair Park was the only venue that could accommodate the number of ticket-holders he’s trying to attract.

Kinsey and other council members alluded to the fact that the city has received a lot of emails from residents expressing concern over the project.

“Some of the comments that you guys saw online, I had all those same comments,” Kinsey said. “So in this last five months and with meeting between the fire department, the police, people in the neighborhoods, development services, stormwater, the council members Amber Sherrill and Mike Nugent and Gwen Jones, we have come to the conclusion that this is gonna be great for Midtown and it’ll be good for the businesses. It’ll be somewhat of an impact to the residents but I think that the residents are going to be extremely pleased when they see the improvements to the park and the improvements that Always On LLC can help make to Playfair Park.”

Osburn said that they would rent out Splash Montana, the nearby waterpark, for ticket-holders. They wouldn’t sell alcohol there, and he said he envisioned it as a place parents could take their kids during the show. He estimated the city would get $139,000 in ticket sales from just the Splash Montana side of the event.

Kinsey said people have been concerned that Splash Montana would become a “drunken row” during the event. But, she noted, alcohol wouldn’t be served in there and staff at Splash are already used to dealing with inebriated people on many occasions.

Osburn said that the festival would benefit a lot of businesses.

“As far as economic impact, it goes without saying but these events historically have been fantastic economic impacts for municipalities,” he said. “Especially being in July, it will be great to generate tourism dollars, get people in restaurants, get people in hotels.”

The sound from the stage would be pointed away from neighborhoods, he said. He and Kinsey said that there’s a misconception that the festival grounds would include the baseball and softball fields, but that isn’t true.

Osburn said that he’s anticipating losing money on the first few years just to make sure everything goes perfectly.

City council members Mirtha Becerra and Kristen Jordan both expressed serious concern over the lack of community engagement so far and the list of unanswered questions.

Becerra said it was “premature” for the committee to be even considering approving the agreement. She said she wanted to see a traffic plan presented by members of city staff rather than just something produced by Osburn. She said she had 10 questions she was going to email Osburn.

Jordan asked Osburn what kind of neighborhood outreach he had done.

He replied saying he had met with neighborhood council leaders, police department staff and fire department staff. He also noted that he’s talked with friends in the area of Playfair Park who seem to be amenable to the idea of a festival.

Jordan said, “Respectfully, anecdotal conversations with your friends doesn’t tick the box” for her as far as a requisite level of neighborhood outreach. She also noted that she’s only seen emails from constituents who are opposed to the project and none in support. She noted that a lot of people are concerned that they’re getting a “concert venue put in their backyard.”

Osburn said he’s fully aware that the “community impacts” are by far the most important aspect of the festival, and he said he’s committed to reaching out to neighbors and anyone with concerns. He noted that they’re going to utilize shuttles and have a plan to mitigate the parking situation, although details weren’t clear.

Mike Nugent said that Osburn had privately shared much more detailed information with him and other city council members.

“I wish that information had been included in today’s presentation,” Nugent said.

Nugent also said that there needed to be more input from the community. He noted that the University of Montana hosts Griz football games, with attendance of around 26,000 people eight times a year, but the community wasn’t asked to “trust” that those events would work out on short notice without hearing more about the level of planning.

“We need to give people time to digest and hear it; we need a lot more detail than what was shared today,” Nugent said.

Council member Stacie Anderson said the council needs to hear from the police department and the fire department and get a more comprehensive presentation.

Council member Jennifer Savage said it appeared to her that “there’s other information out there that might be helpful.”

“While it seems like there hasn’t been a lot of neighborhood outreach, it also seems like there hasn’t been a lot of council outreach,” she said.

Roanie Elliott, the president of the Mount Sentinel Little League board of directors, said he was “blasted with emails and text messages” earlier in the week because people thought the festival would be on the baseball fields. He said he’s relieved that’s not the case, but he still has major concerns.

He noted that Mother Nature is unpredictable, and when a Mumford & Sons concert was held at the Ogren Park baseball stadium in 2019, the rain created a situation that allowed the field to get damaged. He said six minor league baseball games had to be canceled and the owners of the Pioneer League’s Missoula Osprey saw a revenue loss of $239,000.

Elliott also noted that the festival organizers would need a “city of porta potties” for that many people. He also noted that people living near Playfair Park can often hear the loud events like monster trucks at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.

He said, for all those reasons, he didn’t feel like the park was a suitable venue.

The committee did not take action on the proposed agreement and will take the issue up again in early November.