This is what 25,000 people looks like

In the July 3 2013 issue of The St Augustine Report, published by former Mayor George Gardner, a reader was quoted “In the mailbag” column asking about the consequences and direction of city officials who committed the community to the upcoming Mumford concert.

They asked, “Who’s going to pay for all the damage done by the party animals attending the Mumford concert?” The City has tried to estimate those costs, according to Comptroller Mark Litzinger who is responsible for the project’s budget.

The City, through Ryan Murphy, General Manager of the St Johns County Cultural Events Division and General Manager of the St Augustine Amphitheatre and Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, pitched a $129,485 grant request to the Tourist Development Council as a “reserve fund” request.

Since there was no advance planning of this enormous event, and its approval was virtually spontaneous, the City had no opportunity to submit a regular TDC funding request for the event — like the 28 other event organizers whose applications are being scrutinized during the regular public TDC meeting in the County Auditorium on July 15th.

The fate of the request is unknown; however, Glenn Hastings tells Historic City News that it is likely to be approved — although the TDC will want to see more specific plans for the grant’s use, if awarded. “They will have to show us all the receipts showing how they spent whatever final amount is granted,” Hastings said.

The “mailbag” writer went on to ask, “Do we want to be a historic city or a rock and music concert city?” Again, Litzinger has already told Gardner and Historic City News editor Michael Gold that “if we can pull this off”, it will open the door to events of larger scale than the Seafood Festival, Rhythm and Ribs, and similarly sized events in the future. I suppose we’ll learn the answer to the reader’s question after the concert, although there is clearly the desire of city management to move forward in that direction if possible.

“It’s a mess just after the 4th of July festivities, I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like after this,” the reader remarked. As Gold told Litzinger, during a recent meeting on the subject that was also attended by City Manager John Regan, “Sometimes you don’t know how deep a puddle is until you step in it.”

The City has definitely stepped into this; Regan credits 450th Director Dana Ste. Claire, but shares the credit himself and with a few other top officials who he says have met and entertained the event promoters — steering them away from the Castillo de San Marcos green, which they wanted as a venue, and into Francis Field, instead.

St Augustine has hosted past events in the 5,000 to 8,000 attendance range, but nothing like the two-day Mumford and Sons Gentlemen of the Road stopover September 13 and 14 that has already sold a reported 25,000 tickets.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney held a rally in St Augustine that did not draw half that many participants; however, in Ohio, 25,000 supporters were reported to have cleared the security scanners at a rally there. Below is a picture of what 25,000 people looks like. (Click the image to enlarge).