by Rod Williams

On the Council agenda Tuesday night is a bill that would severely restrict outdoor music events in Music City.

SUBSTITUTE BILL NO. BL2014-651 would regulate small outdoor music events in commercial areas. Currently other than a noise ordinance, outdoor music events are not regulated.

This bill sets all kinds of restrictions including setbacks, lighting, prenotification, only one per month per location, off street parking, and it requires events end by 9 p.m. on week nights. Why? I think we should encourage more music; not less. When tourists come to town, I would think it would be great if they could have the unexpected experience of an outdoor concert and if on almost any night of the week somewhere there was a concert taking place. The many bands that make Nashville home need more opportunities to be heard, not fewer. Hypocritically but thankfully, this ordinance would not apply to events in public parks.

I don’t do it much anymore, but I used to attend a lot of music events. I loved summer outdoor music events. For several seasons there was a free outdoor summer music event in midtown near what was then Great Escape. I attended almost all of them and heard some great music and had a lot of fun. One of the artists I saw there was Lucinda Williams, whom I love. If this regulation would have been in place, that event would have not been permitted. For one thing, there was no off street parking. You parked blocks away on-street and walked to the event.

I used to hang out with some people in the music business. It is hard enough to recruit the talent and advertise and do all the things one must do to make an event happen. We should not add a big bureaucratic road block as an additional hurdle to live outdoor music. Unfortunately, I suspect the people who love music and like to go to music events are not very engaged in local politics, so this will probably pass. I hope some in the music industry turn out and speak against this. The Chamber should be against it. I think Nashville has more potential to be “music city” than it already is, if we don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

If you want to keep the music alive in music city, it you have friends who like out door music events or are in bands and seek more opportunities to perform rather than fewer, encourage them to contact their councilman and urge them to vote against this bill. Urge them to attend the pubic hearing and speak against it.

(Cross posted from A Disgruntled Republican in Nashville.)