MISSOULA, Mont. — A proposed event in Missoula is drawing mixed reaction from residents and prompting a long list of questions from City Council members.
Loren Pinski has lived across from Playfair Park for about eight years, and starting next summer he could have a front row seat to a massive musical festival. Pinski is among those opposed to the festival.
“The neighborhood isn’t built for that,” he said. “The roads aren’t built for that, and the parking isn’t built for that.”
Other neighbors like Christopher Slater are open to it.
“I think it’s cool, I think they should do it and move forward with it, because this town kind of needs a banging music festival going,” Slater said.
Always On LLC is looking to bring an Americana-alternative rock festival to Missoula for the next eight years, starting July of 2024 or 2025.
A major part of the company’s plans for the festival are the soccer fields at Playfair Park. The fields would be at the center of an event that could see up to 20,000 people per day.
Opinion varied among the neighbors NBC Montana spoke to Monday, but even neighbors in support of the festival brought up the issue of parking.
Playfair Park sits in a neighborhood bordered by Splash Montana and tennis courts on one side and homes on another.
The man behind the potential festival, Scott Osburn, told the Missoula City Council at a committee meeting last week that festival officials would be “closing and controlling” Bancroft Street as well as parts of Pattee Creek Drive, with passes provided for residents who live on the streets.
The event will use roughly the same parking plan as the Western Montana Fair, Osburn said.
“The reality is we are going to be lessening the impact to the neighborhood as much as possible and even directing people to not even be driving down there,” he told council members.
Ward 2 council member Mirtha Becerra said she’d like to see more documentation and some sort of agency review of the impact on the neighborhood before agreeing to the proposal.
“It seems like if we agree to this and then start looking at how this is all going to unfold and impact the neighborhood, it seems backward to me,” Becerra said at last week’s meeting.
Other concerns raised at the meeting were whether the park would have sufficient infrastructure for such an event and concerns over how much residents in the area had been consulted about the festival.
The individuals NBC Montana spoke with Monday agreed they enjoy the hustle and bustle at the park, but for some like Pinski a music festival is a step too far.
“I can see why they want to have a concert here,” he said. “I just don’t want them to have a concert here. There are lots of other venues.”
Missoula’s Climate, Conservation and Parks Committee will discuss the proposed agreement again on Nov. 8.
