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Council rejects music festival idea for airport
By BRADY DENNIS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001 ZEPHYRHILLS -- Don't expect the sounds of music to waft from Zephyrhills Municipal Airport any time soon. City Council members Monday concurred with the Airport Authority and unanimously rejected a request from the group Drug Educated America, or DEA, to hold a 24-hour substance-free music festival next to the airport on May 19. Council members cited noise, crowd control and lack of time to plan as reasons they turned down the idea. "I think it would have taken a lot of work and effort for us," said City Manager Steve Spina said. "There was not much of a benefit, but there was a potential for a lot of complaints." Airport manager Jim Werme agreed. He said his main worry was protecting the airport's planes with a partying crowd of 10,000 nearby. "I know it was planned as a drug-free environment, but there always is going to be one bad apple," Werme said. "Also, I don't think the Airport Authority was saying no to the concept, but it just seemed a little unorganized. "Things like the air show take a year to plan. This was kind of last minute." Rocky Maschinot, founder of DEA, said he was surprised and disappointed by the council's decision. "I don't really understand their ruling," he said. "We thought it would be a good thing to bring to Zephyrhills. It was such a good cause, I couldn't see them denying me. For them to turn me down was a pretty big slap in the face." The outline for the festival included a European car show, skateboard ramps provided by Skate Park of Tampa, an exhibition from 35 jumpers at Skydive City and more than 50 musical acts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Maschinot said he offered to bring 25 of his own security officers, 20 on-site parking and security workers outside and a full medical staff. He said he planned on renting 15 trash bins and 225 55-gallon drums for trash collection. He said he also offered to pay the city workers and off-duty police officers for their work. Still, it wasn't enough. Maschinot said he thought city officials shied away because of the raucous reputation of Livestock, which is held annually just south of the city off U.S. 301. That festival, which is anything but drug-free, is approved by the county and held on private property, not city land. Spina and Werme both said the DEA festival could work in the future, with better and earlier planning. "If anybody is going to do it, I think this is the right group," Werme said. "It was a positive group." Spina agreed. "I'm not opposed to them coming back and saying, "Hey, could we do this next year?' " Spina said. "But to try to do something where we get 10,000 people out there, I'm not sure we could work out all those logistics in a month." Maschinot, who now is considering a site near Thonotosassa, said it was the city's loss. "I thought we'd pretty much covered anything around there so they wouldn't have a problem," he said. "We figured it could bring some business to them. And it was all for a good cause. "It's not the end of the world. We're still going to have this thing come hell or high water." - Brady Dennis covers the city of Zephyrhills and police news in east Pasco. His phone number is (352) 521-5757, ext. 23. His e-mail address is dennis@sptimes.com. -- Discuss this and other issues in our Pasco news forum.
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