West Beach Fest Unplugged

"Old age and treachery will overcome youth and enthusiasm every time."

The Pemberton's hubris was believing the city would turn over and endanger one of it's jewels to a couple of kids with C-list bands.

These two seem like smart, hardworking guys...Will somebody please give them a real job? (The "I want to be a Rock Star" bus left 20 years ago too).

Hint: I think there will be a lot of openings at the PD (great pay and benefits!) when Gov. Arnie opens a big can of PATCO whoopass on the POA...

The thing about hoteliers and coot killers is that they only care about what's in front of their own golfing shoes.

The idea the Mr. Romasanta would dictatorially approve and suggest another district for the imposition of hosting this event was unconscionable. To point out the problems and then suggest some other unsuspecting district should become the host is how we degrade the entire community. EastBeach was not even noticed that they would be subjected to a hearing. Mr. Romasanta and the council were mistaken about the suggested East Beach demographics. There are residences that would be affected and the identical conflicts for varied businesses as well. NIMBYs need to unite against unwanted uses not sell one another out.

What strikes me as interesting about hearings like the one that aired last night was how many successive generations of lobbyists in training there are that think they're supposed to have a nice quiet place to call home and then travel from miles and miles around to trample all over someone else's neighborhood. The way democracy is supposed to work is you're supposed to go door to door and get support from your hosts that you are imposing upon. The only sympathy I have for Twiin Productions is that their elders have taught then rather inadequately.

And no one mentioned the seabirds and sea mamals that call the beach area home. The true voiceless I guess.

Unless you like lawn bowling don't plan on having any fun in this town.

sue

At least the concept to move this event to Earl Warren Showgrounds never got any traction. They do have 30 acres of asphalt there as a simulated "beach".

If the Twiins are acting rationally, one could conclude that their threat of a lawsuit against the City (reported in all 3 MainStream News outlets) means that they really have no intention of making an application to the City to move their event to East Beach, especially as the City staff now has sole authority to decide the fate of their application

Tip to Twiins: Ventura County Fairgrounds starts answering their phone at 10 am today.

This is a bad result for Santa Barbara. We could have used the revenue and, given some time, this could have turned into something really nice for our community. I am sorry that the community is beholden to a few loud short-sighted individuals whose influence greatly exceeds their vision.

Brett

What revenue?

The proposed fees to be paid to the City --even if the full amount was paid and the cheque did not bounce again-- barely would cover the actual expenses by the City.

Santa Barbara is not for sale, either.

"Area residents and hoteliers complained about drunken concertgoers vandalizing property and vomiting in front yards."

Yet Santa Barbarans would prefer a 5-day tequila drunk-fest known as Fiesta that takes over our entire downtown area and has produced numerous violent acts and deaths over the years. Besides the fact that Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights of Fiesta serve as an unofficial gang meet-up for cliques from SLO down to Long Beach. Our family has not ventured downtown after dark during the Fiesta celebration in well over 5 years.

Just how many of those 257 police complaints were simply noise complaints? I'd love to see a comparison of the 5 day police complaint/arrest log during Fiesta. My family, including 2 small children attended WBMF the last 2 years and enjoyed a much more positive vibe and environment than can be found during Fiesta.

WBMF is much more safe, contained, clean and organized than even our 4th of July celebration that brings 10's of thousand of revelers to the waterfront each year. Last year they used metal detectors to scan for potential weapons at WBMF. No stabbing deaths in the last 3 WBMF's. The same can't be said for our 4th of July celebrations.

Same small town pandering, politics and hypocrisy.

Fiesta gets pretty rowdy and the police state enforced is none to friendly and yet we let that continue. Mind you I'm not calling for a halt to Fiesta just a reasoned approach. Canceling WBMF is bad for business, bad for the community and bad for the future of SB.

What a poor choice by the city counsel. They have been making a lot of blunders lately. So does this mean the ATP Volleyball events won't be allowed there either anymore? They draw more people and clog the entire road next to the beach too.

Oh wait, double standards as usual from the counsel.

How did the counsel get filled up with so many political puppets and air heads?

Fantastic news for the resident of West Beach, downtown Santa Barbara, and Montecito (where the noise was a problem several miles away... seriously? Yes, seriously.)

The Pembertons have repeatedly shown a lack of respect for the citizens of Santa Barbara, all in the name of their own personal profit (counterfeiting waterfront parking passes?) Thank goodness the city council had the sense to wake up and smell the funk.

As for the comparisons to Fiesta... apples and oranges. Fiesta is a cultural tradition in the vein of Mardi Gras - the West Beach Festival was an opportunity for LA Frat Boys to get wasted and piss all over responsible tax-paying Santa Barbara residents. There have been 86 years of Fiesta... making a comparison to a two-year old frat-rock festival is ludicrous.

Good riddance to West Beach Festival.

"There have been 86 years of Fiesta... making a comparison to a two-year old frat-rock festival is ludicrous."
--CitizenWatchdog

How is vomit all over State St. from a "cultural tradition" any different from the same generated by concert-goers at West Beach?

And how does the profit gained by the Pembertons differ from that gained by the handful of hoteliers along the beach during Fiesta?

There may be reasons to reconsider the West Beach venue, but those aren't the right ones.

Complaining about "frat boys" drinking it up in SB is a bit like complaining about the amount of hay in a barn.

Perhaps this festival is just too far for many on here, but let's be honest: we are a frat boy drinking destination and have been for decades. Its not an entirely bad thing either.

Also as East Beach pointed out: Apples and Oranges indeed... the music festival is a lot safer and less violent than Fiesta. Those are the biggest differences. As to whether one type of drunken revelry and vomit is preferably over another... I can't answer that.

We don't need all those drunk kids trashing the beach.

Earl Warren Showgrounds is much easier to clean up.

No events over a thousand people should be allowed on any SB beaches.

I love to party myself, but trash, noise, and barf don't belong on the beach.

Lars said: "No events over a thousand people should be allowed on any SB beaches."

Try every square inch of our waterfront beaches from East Beach to Leadbetter and another 3-5,000 at Shoreline Park, covered with folks partying on 4th of July. Have you been to the waterfront in the past 10 years during a 4th of July celebration? My original point was that WBMF is a much more controlled environment compared to the standard annual celebrations that City Hall would have us believe are culturally redeeming.

Citizen Watchdog said: "There have been 86 years of Fiesta... making a comparison to a two-year old frat-rock festival is ludicrous."

Besides 4th of July, Fiesta is much worse on a much broader scale. 5 days of massive litter, vomit, underage drinking, public drunkeness, rape, violence are all annual staples of Fiesta.

So to compare two different events, that both attract attendees in large scale, is perfectly reasonable.

The events leading up to this most recent WBMF decision are biased and prejudiced at the very least. The back room tactics employed by city hall are simply disgusting.

Due Process - the only right mentioned twice with the 5th and 14th Amendment in our Constitution.

Both city staff and city council have brought this into question. A letter from the Parks Director state her initial decision to deny the festival was "unappealable".(Public Record)

Twiin Productions brought this to council who opened up the appeal process to Parks Commission, who approved their permit.

(It get's confusing here) After an appeal on the 1st appeal's decision, City Council then votes to give unappealable decision making authority to city staff to determine if Chase Palm Field is viable.

Why does city staff have unappealable decision making authority? That's not the way our country was designed to work.

Suing the city is probably not what Twiin wants to do - or they probably would have done that a while ago instead of creating solutions for the issues raised. But I'm sure they've got a bunch of attorneys calling them with ideas, and they probably are weighing the options.

I know these guys have learned a lot from this process, and they are invested in Santa Barbara - let's hope city staff and Twiin can work out plans to keep the festival in Santa Barbara - with less impact to our community.

"Added Councilmember Frank Hotchkiss, "I hope you reexamine a different place or different venue or a different style of music.""
Great , a failed actor is now taking his anachronystic ideas of music and applying them to public policy. Hotchkiss is a LOSER who's happy to take everyone down with him to satisfy his vanity.

The point about July 4th is a good one.

But the fact is that celebrating July 4th, and Fiesta, for that matter, are traditions that go back many years and matter to a majority or us locals.

This beach concert is not a tradition. It's not something most Santa Barbarans care about. And, frankly, it's a for-profit enterprise at the expense of folks, like myself, who might just want to stroll along the beach in peace and quiet, not be yelled at, or even potentially urinated on.

But the fact is that celebrating July 4th, and Fiesta, for that matter, are traditions that go back many years and matter to a majority or us locals.
-- Lars

So now you're speaking for all us locals eh? From where did you get transplanted from? Most of my buddies whom I grew up with here in town leave town during Fiesta!

Here's a better argument:

If these guys are allowed to throw a giant beach concert, what's to stop anybody else from doing the same thing? Do we really want giant events taking place on our beaches all the time?

We're all ready stuck with July 4th and Fiesta, do we really need to open the floodgates and turn our beaches into Spring Break style party central? Seriously, it's a can of worms we don't need opened. . .

Public beaches should never be closed off for exclusive use of private money making enterprises, period. They couldn't pay the City of SB or its tax paying citizens enough money to mitigate all the bad behavior that went on last year on that weekend.
As if the trash and noise generated weren't enough, what was REALLY offensive were the obscenities being LOUDLY repeated over and over again by the performing acts all night long. Nobody needs to be subjected to that kind of garbage.
Good Riddance Twins... find a town that doesn't mind being used and abused and leave West Beach and the Harbor alone.

One can only *imagine* the vapors to befall our Upright Citizens Brigade upon viewing the riff-raff who not only don't share their taste in music, or look familiar, but have the *temerity* to frequent THEIR beach area.

Lady Burnett!! Please draw out the fainting couch!!!

Well, I can't feel too bad for the TWIINs. I wondered if they were sort of above the law of the land for awhile, because this event was way overblown and incredibly sloppily planned with lots of shadiness involved, and it seemed like SB was just turning a blind eye. If SB has to deal with all theses issues from the event, they'd better be getting cut a nice check from TWIINS, which it sounds like they never got (more shadiness). I would LOVE to see this 'event' happen but scaled-down, with all the Disney-fied blow-up attractions and weird techno dance areas eliminated (what the hell was that?). It would be better to bare down to the basics - a stage and a beer garden (hell, I have my priorities!). What else are they doing for the rest of the year? They have a whole year to plan this thing, so they should be able to get their sh*t together and run a tighter show. Maybe they're not cut out for this type of work - they might want to consider that. Or maybe they need to consider hiring someone that can organize better.

And Hotchkiss suggests a different style of music? Whaaaaat??? Isn't it mostly reggae? Guess that's not beach-appropriate. **warning - sarcasm here for those that don't get it ** So I wonder what style of music Hotchkiss would like to see.

Frank Hotchkiss suggested jazz music instead, as in saying "West Beach Jazz Festival" during the City Council deliberation.

How about the West Beach Silence Festival this year? Better yet, I would like to see the West Beach Marijuana Festival or how about the West Beach Recall-Our-Local-Bonehead-Politicians Festival? That would get some panties in a bunch.

Which twin is the good-looking one?

How about the West Beach Francisco/Hotchkiss Weinie Roast?

How about we vote these current Council members out starting with Hotchkiss?

@ Lars- you do not speak for even a small percentage of SB locals when you say that we do not care about this event.Go back to watching Jeopardy and let us have a damn music festival.

Register and vote! November is coming fast!

It really does break my heart to see the hatred that our community is creating. Santa Barbara is a city that gives a home to the arts: Cabrillo on Sundays to display local artists, the Granada which hosts many Broadway musicals, the Santa Barbara Bowl, and so much more. Since attending WBMF for the past 2 years, I have come to realize that the festival is a great addition to arts and culture of Santa Barbara, just like Fiesta is. Even local bands like Iration and Rebelution have come back to show their hometown some reggae love. The reason why Romasanta is appealing is because he is doing it out of pure spite. Twiin offered to buy out all of Romasanta's hotel for the weekend of the festival, making sure that attendees of the festival won't be trashing the hotel. When attending WBMF, the people were there for the music, not a weekend where it was acceptable to be drunk in public. Fiesta is a week where it is okay to be belligerently drunk and thousands of people from out of town come to party and don't even know the history of Fiesta. WBMF is a weekend of pure bliss: beach, music, friends, and sun. It really is a beautiful sight to see 13,000 people swaying to the music and to be united as one. If WBMF carries on at a different location, I hope the city counsel in attendance. I want Hotchkiss and Francisco to see what they ruined for thousands of people and realize that they made a mistake.

Dear sblocal2

Hotchkiss and Francisco delight in the destruction of the arts and communities. They are barbarians who lust only for money and power.

SB needs to remember it is not a large "old Folks home" there is young people out there with nothing to do...perhaps if you gave the kids something to do they just might stay out of trouble...at one time SB had roller skating-ice skating-arcade. but not more...so what do you suppose the kids will do??? gangs, drugs,drinking,vandalism to name a few...a bored child is a disruptive child...

I think that EastBeach's commenting on a festival West Beach is inappropriate since there is a clear cross-beach rivalry between the two beaches.

Our pod of dolphins swims BOTH these beaches and calls upon a truce between the two.