Kerrville Folk
Festival is initiating this project to achieve the following
goals:
- To determine the optimum location for staff showers
- To evaluate the appearance of the backstage area and
determine whether changes should be made to improve the
appearance of the backstage area.
(Backstage area, for purposes of this discussion,
includes the VIP parking areas and staff camping areas in
the VIP parking lot.)
- To determine if additional VIP parking is needed (and
most especially if new VIP parking is needed to replace
parking lost to staff showers).
- To determine if additional staff camping is needed in
or adjacent to the Forrest Lawn area.
- To determine what, if any, hookups and utilities are
needed for staff camping and what can be provided within
cost limitations.
- To determine if access to Forrest Lawn and any new
staff camping areas should be established or modified.
- To evaluate any drainage problems that exist or that
will be created as a result of this project that need to
be addressed.
A
separate project has been established for Staff showers, but
it is recognized that the final location of those showers will
be determined within this project, and that the impact of the
showers on the backstage area will be addressed in this
project.
It
has been observed that there is land that is presently
unutilized that is across the road (that stretches from
Rod’s to NancyLee’s houses) from Forrest Lawn that could
be used for Staff camping or other purposes.
The land that is a candidate is that land that runs on
the West side of this road starting at the boundary from
Rod’s property and running 100-200 feet toward’s
NancyLee’s house. This
could provide enough room for 5-10 staff camp sites.
Water and electricity could be provided.
While sewer is a possibility, it would be much more
difficult to provide. A
pit could be provided for absorption of grey water discharge,
provided steps are taken to see that sewage is not discharged
into the pit.
It
has also been observed that the VIP parking area has plenty of
room for all of the entertainers that we are likely to have on
a busy night, but that the VIP area has been slowly encroached
with Staff and VIP camping, leaving only the areas along the
fence for any material amount of parking.
Moving staff showers from the present location and
expanding them will free up some backstage real estate, but
will take some parking spaces and may require moving the fence
gate that is presently the “fire lane”.
We could free up a lot of VIP parking by restricting
staff camping. Restrictions
could cover those areas along the theater fence, the lower
areas below the Tin Can (where Lee Green, Stuart and Rick’s
trailers are) or both. One
of the limitations faced presently is that it is very
difficult/impossible to get large entertainer busses in to the
VIP parking areas backstage.
This is as much of a parking problem – having paths
wide enough for a large buss to navigate to backstage, as it
is a backstage problem. It
has also been suggested that we should have electrical hook
ups for entertainer busses so that they don’t feel compelled
to run generators or their main engines.
It
may be a no brainer that additional staff camping with hookups
should be provided if possible, regardless of whether staff
camping is restricted in the VIP parking area.
This would free up space that staffers presently use
for paying public camping or VIP parking.
If
we establish staff camping hookups, then the question arises
as to what the charge for using those spots with hookups
should be. Presently,
we charge the public $15 a night for a campsite with
electricity and water hookups (no sewer).
We charge staff $5 for 18 days for a permit to use
electricity (but no air conditioning and no water hook up).
To be a prudent manager of festival resources,
management must ask how much income will be generated to the
festival from the investment necessary to construct these
sites. A policy on
charging for staff hook ups may impact a number of staffers
who have been able to procure hooks ups but have not paid
anything for them. While
this may have been fair historically (the festival didn’t
make any material investment in these hook ups) it needs to be
addressed for the future.
While the scope of this project is limited to
construction and space management issues, it may well drive
the Board to address the pricing issue as well.
