The City Council’s Housing and Economic Development Committee voted Wednesday night to send a revised contract for the Back Cove Music & Arts Festival to the full Portland City Council.
Following weeks of negotiations between city staff and festival organizers, the committee voted 3-1 to advance the contract, with Councilor Kate Sykes opposing and Councilors Pious Ali, Sarah Michniewicz and Regina Phillips voting in favor.
Sykes said she wants more information on festival attendance to ensure the city is being fairly compensated for the use of Payson Park, where the festival takes place. Ultimately, the terms Sykes proposed at the last committee meeting were not agreed to.
Those terms included that the contract only be for one more year and that the city and organizers shift to a revenue-sharing model based on overall earnings, rather than the city taking a cut from each ticket sold.
“I’m sure I’ll be the only dissenting vote but I will be talking a lot more about this when it gets to the council,” Sykes said at the meeting Wednesday.
The contract must be approved by the full City Council before it is official. The council is expected to vote on the contract at its meeting Monday.
The agreement advanced on Wednesday would keep the festival at Payson Park through 2028, with the option to extend for another three years beyond that. Ethan Hipple, director of parks, recreation and facilities with the city, said the contract includes changes intended to address concerns raised at previous committee meetings, including more community engagement and stronger oversight.
“All of the things that I asked for were not approved,” Sykes said. “I’m still not satisfied with the transparency around the kinds of tickets that are being sold.”
She also questioned whether the event was benefiting the entire community and raised issues with shuttle buses traveling through residential neighborhoods after dark.
Hipple said the shuttle route was designed with safety in mind. He also noted that most Portland venues, such as Thompson’s Point, do not offer shuttle service at all, and that festival organizers were asked to provide shuttles specifically to reduce traffic and parking issues in neighborhoods surrounding the park.
The new contract has only two changes since the committee met last week. The noise deposit paid by organizers increased from $1,000 to $5,000. And the contract now would require City Council approval if organizers want to transfer their agreement to another entity. That decision previously rested with the city manager alone.
The contract is otherwise the same as it was last week when the committee considered it and ultimately sent it back to staff for further negotiations. The city’s ticket surcharge would incrementally increase — starting at $1 per ticket in 2025 and increasing to $2 by 2027. Organizers would still donate $100,000 annually to the Portland Parks Conservancy and be required to host two public meetings each year — one before the festival to gather feedback and one afterward to review outcomes. Financial records would be submitted to the city’s attorneys to ensure the city is being fairly compensated for use of the park.
Councilor Regina Phillips said she was comfortable with the updated terms and didn’t feel the city needed more details to move forward.
“I think the promoter is giving us a pretty good deal,” she said. “They’ve come to the table and renegotiated several times. To me, they are being extremely generous.”
She also said she felt the public outreach requirements in the contract were sufficient and cautioned against overcomplicating the process.
“That, to me, seems like plenty of communication,” Phillips said. “We try to communicate as much as we can about these things, but somebody is always going to be miffed.”
Phillips supports the festival and believes it’s time to give organizers the green light.
“We need to move on so these promoters can go ahead and confirm who’s coming,” she said.
Michniewicz said she had mixed feelings, but felt the contract reflected a reasonable balance.
“It’s a tough one,” she said. “This is our park. This is our neighborhood. At some point, there does have to be a line.” While not every concern was addressed, “this is at a point where we should move it forward. There are always going to be things that could be changed.”
Assistant City Manager Dena Libner told the committee that this version represents the final round of changes.
“Staff believe they have negotiated the best possible terms they can,” she said.
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