Last Festival Standing

Montgomery's Jubilee CityFest is actually older than the recently deceased CityStages in Birmingham. The Capitol City's downtown music festival was started in 1976. And now there's a hint of an impending death. WSFA TV is reporting that new Mayor Todd Strange has told the music festival's executive director to plan her budget without any city money for next Spring. This year's event, jokingly refers to as RainFest on the official website, lost $27,000. The TV report says Strange also proposes changing the very nature of the event:

"He wants the event to be more family friendly and possibly indoors to avoid the rain. He says the city will still support the festival with services like security, and garbage pick-up."

"Family Friendly?"

"Indoors?"

Why not just change it into a gospel choir marathon inside the Civic Center? I wish the reporter had pressed Strange, asking just what was family unfriendly about previous Jubilee events. The mission statement of CityFest itself includes "family": a premier tourism attraction... creating a family weekend festival, featuring entertainment, cultural events, visual and performing arts, sporting events, and educational children's activities that enhance the quality of life in the City of Montgomery, Alabama and surrounding areas.

But with that said, can't there be part of the event that is "adult friendly"? Leave the kids home with Grandma for a night? Isn't the entire idea of a music festival to make it a street level event where people roam from one venue to another, enjoying music and food and companionship? "Family Friendly" sounds almost like a political statement. Is the Mayor running for reelection already? I can imagine how the volunteers who make events like it possible feel, knowing the city itself won't invest in the event. What does former Mayor and now Congressman Bobby Bright think?