Riverfest contract on LR’s agenda

For the first time in the 36-year history of Riverfest, city and festival officials are considering a long-term contract governing the event’s use of downtown each year.

On the agenda for the Little Rock Board of Directors’ 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday is a resolution allowing the city manager to enter into a five-year contract with Riverfest that would automatically renew for a total of 25 years, ending in 2038.

“We have not had an agreement with them before; they have been getting permits from year to year,” City Attorney Tom Carpenter told city directors recently. “This has been changed dramatically in the sense that it sets [an agreement] for use of the park during that period of time and the city will now receive $1 per sold ticket.In the past, Riverfest has donated to the city, but this is something the city can plan on. … I think it’s much better for the city to have it clarified what the relationship is.”

Under the contract, which the Riverfest board of directors has already approved, the festival would lease Riverfront Park and parts of the Clinton Presidential Park each May around Memorial Day weekend for $1 per year.

The contract also requires Riverfest to collect a $1 park-usage fee per ticket sold and turn over that money to the city. Those funds would be used only for improvements to or the operation of the downtown parks. Riverfest would have input in how that money is spent and could request certain improvements, but the final decision would rest with the city, the agreement states.

The $1 fee won’t be passed on to festival visitors, Riverfest Executive Director DeAnna Korte said. Tickets to the festival this year are $35, or $22 if purchased early at a Walgreens. (The early purchase price includes a $2 surcharge that Walgreens keeps.)

Organizers’ goals are to keep costs affordable and be a good community partner by giving back to city parks, Korte said. She said the festival board pushed for a provision in the contract that requires the city to provide the festival with yearly updates on how the usage-fee revenue is spent so Riverfest can keep track of how it has contributed to the community.

“Riverfest has always given back to the city. It’s given back $1 million in our history as a nonprofit. Really, [the usage fee] is a way for Riverfest to give back rain or shine, because some years we haven’t been able to due to weather and poor attendance or other factors, and this is going to ensure that at least a portion of the proceeds are going to go back yearly into capital improvements to the park,” Korte said.

The contract notes that Riverfest has already pledged $150,000 to rehabilitate the First Security Amphitheater. The festival still owes $100,000 of that pledge, and would be required to pay half of the remaining amount this year and the rest next year under the agreement. Only the amount of the park-usage fee revenue that exceeds those pledge payments will be required to be paid to the city in 2014 and 2015, the contract says.

The proposed contract also includes a section that would require the festival to give the city 80 tickets each year at no charge. Those will be distributed to city directors, the mayor, the city manager, the assistant city manager and all department directors, and the city would hand out the rest, the contract states.

It has been common practice for the festival to provide elected officials, the city and its employees free tickets in the past, Carpenter said.

The agreement would give Riverfest sole use of the park during the festival, but require it to repair any damage to the park or its structures during that use. There also are provisions that allow either party to terminate the agreement at any time for any reason, but the termination wouldn’t be effective until the end of the festival the year after the notification of termination.

The three-day music, food and arts festival will take place May 23-25 this year. Top performers include Easton Corbin, Lee Brice, CeeLo Green, Jamey Johnson, Three Days Grace, Hank Williams Jr. and Buckcherry.

Riverfest organizers are thrilled about the proposed long-term agreement because it secures the festival’s presence in Little Rock for years to come, Korte said.

“Obviously, that security of having our home in Riverfront Park and at the Clinton presidential library and downtown Little Rock as a whole is great,” she said. “We are excited to have this and move forward into hopefully a lot of years of a great festival in the city.”