Festival season in Chicago brings thousands of people together every summer, with bodies syncing up to sway to the same pulse, voices rising, good vibes flowing, worries as far away as January.
But the mix of people bumping shoulders over Mamby on the Beach is as eclectic as this year’s lineup.
In recent weeks, Mamby has created waves between fans eager to dig their toes back into the sand, a promoter with millions of dollars on the line, neighbors who don’t want “Ravinia South” and ornithologists tracking the mating habits of two baseball-sized birds.
As a coral box on the fest’s website ticks down the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until the Chicago summer music festival’s return, stakeholders have their own countdown — to address concerns about accessibility and preservation before tens of thousands of people who just want to listen to deep house under the sun arrive on a late August weekend.
This summer, promoters announced that Mamby, the city’s only beach-side fest, was moving from Oakwood Beach on the South Side to the North Side’s Montrose, where some neighbors have previously fought off festivals. About 50,000 fans are estimated to move between three stages, with breaks for yoga or tarot card readings.
No details have been finalized and a permit has not been issued, Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons said in a statement Thursday.
“We will continue to work with the organizers to address the concerns of the community,” the statement said. “If an agreement is reached, proceeds from Mamby Festival will generate revenue to support programming in local parks.”
There’s a lot on the line for promoters and community members alike. The festival may be moved west of the beach to avoid rising water levels, even though some locals want it moved from Montrose entirely.
Mamby debuted in 2015 at Oakwood Beach with acts like Passion Pit and Cut Copy, positioning itself as a formidable electronic and alternative music fest — and the only one that could boast lakeside volleyball.
Sam Oberholtzer, 27, of Old Town, already bought her ticket to Mamby. She’s looking forward to the new location — and to not wearing shoes.
“I really like how you can go in the water if you want to,” Oberholtzer said. “People were able to dip their feet in.”
“That’s a seller right there,” said former attendee Adrian Flores, 29, of Ukrainian Village.
“We live in the city,” said Jerry Mickelson, co-founder of Jam Productions, the longtime independent concert promotion company behind Mamby. “Street fests are good for the city. The Air and Water Show is good for the city. Wrigley Field concerts are good for the city. And so are Lollapalooza and many of the other fests that take place in our city parks — not just financially but artistically and culturally.”
In fiery letters sent between Mickelson and the main community group opposing the festival, obtained by the Tribune, Mickelson warned that there were millions of dollars at risk. Both parties met this week to try to find common ground.
‘A slippery slope’
Residents near Montrose Beach have a track record of fighting back against fests, speaking out over the years about noise and traffic concerns and advocating for accessibility.
The Wavefront Music Festival, an EDM fest held at the beach in 2012 and 2013, was canceled after complaints of pounding music and gridlocked traffic.
In 2015, locals met with Jam Productions and Ald. James Cappleman, 46th, ahead of the Mumford & Sons concert to address similar concerns. The show was expected to bring 35,000 fans to Cricket Hill, located between Montrose Beach and Lake Shore Drive.
At the time, Cappleman said he wanted to bring more outdoor concerts to the neighborhood. “The Park District needs the revenue,” he said at a community meeting.
Mumford & Sons paid $100,000 for the permit fee and additional fees for a postponement because of rain and repairs to the grounds. Although a departure from the heavy bass of Wavefront, locals said Mumford’s gentler vibe still carried for miles.
“I live a mile and a half away from Cricket Hill, and I could hear them pretty clearly,” Jill Niland, of North Center, told the Tribune after the fest. “So I can’t imagine what it was like for people along the lakefront.”
After Mumford & Sons — and a Beach Boys and Kool & the Gang concert at the harbor the following weekend — the Tribune reported that residents spoke out against future large-scale events.
“We’re not so sure this is a good utilization of park space,” said Ellen Isaacson, then president of the Lincoln Park Advisory Council. “And it seems like this is a slippery slope. Is Montrose going to become the Ravinia South? Because I don’t want that at all.”
‘Life is very perilous for a little plover chick’
Charlotte Newfeld, 88, of Lakeview, said she doesn’t want to see any festivals on Montrose Beach, where native plant species and a rare wetland thrive and rare birds pass through a dedicated sanctuary.
“The people around it may not like the noise and so on and so forth, but these beaches are fragile,” said Newfeld, a steward of the Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. “Nature should be protected right there, and instead you’re going to have this festival.
“The music isn’t going to sound different because it’s near the water,” added Newfeld. “I know it looks beautiful and it attracts a lot of people, but we shouldn’t put our beaches in jeopardy.”
The fate of two federally endangered birds, a pair of piping plovers, is in question as the fest approaches.
Carl Giometti, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society, said there are about 70 breeding pairs of plovers in the Great Lakes area, primarily in Michigan. Last year, two plovers nested in a sandy parking lot in Waukegan and one chick was successfully reared and eventually released at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
This year, the pair left the suburbs for the city and scraped their nest at Montrose Beach.
“It’s a really big deal because the population is still struggling to get off the endangered species list,” Giometti said.
A few weeks ago the pair, named Monty and Rose, began copulating, said Giometti. Monty reportedly has chased off larger birds, including a mallard. A few eggs have since been laid.
“That’s obviously a call for celebration,” he said.
But the eggs were removed from the nest this week ahead of a storm that was expected to flood the beach, in the hope of keeping them viable. The Lincoln Park Zoo will care for the eggs before they’re transferred to the Detroit Zoo.
Monty and Rose have remained on site near the nest area, leading some to wonder if another clutch could come. If the birds have a second clutch of eggs, “then the Mamby on the Beach dates loom large,” Giometti said.
On Thursday afternoon, Monty and Rose zoomed across the litter-strewn beach like sandy-colored flying saucers. They spent some time by the volleyball courts. Almost all of their blocked-off nesting area was filled with shallow water.
“Getting a single bird to fledge and fly and migrate south would be an enormous victory,” said Giometti. “Nature has already made it hard enough on these birds; obviously the human element adds a whole other level of complication.”
Louise Clemency, a field supervisor in the Chicago office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agreed.
“Even under the best conditions, life is very perilous for a little plover chick,” she said.
Clemency said a move of the fest from the beach to a grassy area could bolster the plovers’ safety. The chicks may run all over the beach once they hatch, said Clemency, but they won’t leave it.
“They like to be out in the open on very wide, bare beaches,” she said. “And this year Lake Michigan water levels are so high that actually, all around the Great Lakes, there’s less of their preferred nesting habitat.”
Mickelson said promoters are coming up with a contingency plan to move the fest adjacent to the beach and east of Simonds Drive because the beach is underwater.
“We went to look at the plovers,” said Mickelson. “And they are mating in the middle of the beach right where we would be setting up. Will the plovers be gone by then? We don’t know. But we certainly want to respect the endangered species that it is.”
‘Something to enjoy’
Last year, with headliners spanning hometown rapper Common to indie favorite Grizzly Bear, attendance was 24,000, according to the fest’s 2019 special event permit application.
Flores, the Ukrainian Village fan, said he would have bought a ticket for this year’s fest if he hadn’t already committed to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Mamby’s early focus on underground acts made it unique, he said, and this year it seemed like the fest was trying to attract a larger audience.
The estimated attendance this summer is 20,000 per day for the two-day run, according to the permit application.
Mickelson said the fest has lost money in recent years, partly because of location, and he hoped to address fans’ concerns.
“And the fans that come to this, it’s such a diverse audience, there were many LGBTQ fans that said take it off of Pride weekend,” he said. “And they also said move it to a location if you can that’s more convenient.”
Flores said he would like to see more fests like Mamby throughout the city.
“At the end of the day, it generates revenue for the community, it brings people together and it’s a great way for people to meet new people,” he said. “It’s cold here eight to nine months a year. It gives people something to look forward to, something to enjoy.”
Flores cheered the date change from the spring hangover in June to warmer days in August and the move to Montrose. He said getting out of the festival at Oakwood, with no direct CTA route and long lines for shuttles, was “a nightmare.”
Now, as the Mamby website notes, the fest is a short walk from the Wilson Red Line stop and just five minutes from multiple CTA bus stops.
“At the end of the day, at least for music junkies, you book a lineup and they’ll come,” said Flores.
‘Hoping this is not a trend’
Ann Howard, 39, of Belmont Cragin, said she has been visiting Chicago beaches her entire life. When summer hits, it’s the perfect place to spend an afternoon.
“I really just don’t think they have the right to take that away from everyone,” Howard said. “The lakefront is what makes Chicago so special.”
Howard said she was similarly opposed to the Mumford & Sons concert and would like to see Mamby move to a privatized area or, even better, the suburbs.
“I’m hoping this is not a trend,” she said.
Michelle Burke, a board member for Montrose Dog Beach, said the board also is concerned about traffic blocking access to the dog beach and sound filtering over to the canine-friendly area.
“Noise sensitivity can be hard on humans and dogs alike,” she said.
And local vendors face their own challenges.
Luke Cholodecki, owner of the Dock restaurant at Montrose Beach, said the Mumford & Sons concert affected the restaurant’s revenue. Cholodecki said he’s not opposed to events at Montrose and is in discussions about how the restaurant can work with the fest, but two-thirds of the business’s revenue comes in July and August.
“So we have a lot of trepidation about this,” he said.
‘It was quite a surprise’
On May 31, the Montrose Lakefront Coalition, a group made up of about 25 stakeholders from organizations like park advisory councils and local vendors, sent a letter to the Park District saying they were “shocked” by the announcement of Mamby moving to Montrose. The group expressed concerns including access to the area, natural resources put at risk, loss of revenue from concessions and potential harm to the plovers.
The group requested that the festival “not be permitted at Montrose Beach and that no further preparations be made” to hold it in the Montrose area.
On June 2, Mickelson of Jam Productions responded with his own letter, saying he contacted the group 31/2 weeks earlier to talk about the fest. The lakefront coalition was the only party to not schedule a meeting, he said. Mickelson addressed what he called misinformation and boldfaced lies from the coalition.
After the exchange, coalition members and Jam met recently to talk about a path forward.
Mickelson said all of Montrose Harbor, Montrose Point, the dog beach and Lincoln Park east of Lake Shore Drive will be accessible to the public, and the beach would open again in its entirety on Aug. 25, a Sunday.
The pending permit contract has eight days from Aug. 19-26 blocked off.
“Everything that they brought up, I think there’s an answer for,” said Mickelson. “We’ve always been good neighbors and we will continue to do that.
“We’re trying our best to bring commerce and business to the Uptown community,” he added. Mickelson is an investor in projects in the Uptown Entertainment District, including the Uptown Theatre. “We’re never going to take anything for granted. We’ll see how it goes and go from there. There’s nothing that’s engraved in stone that says we’re going to be back. I’m always having to prove myself, and I don’t mind that.”
Mickelson said he intends to redo the plans, continue community outreach and meet with stakeholders in early July to provide an update. Cappleman, the alderman, said he’s open to having more outdoor concerts in the Uptown area and will be meeting with the coalition and police as soon as the new site plan is available.
But Jill Niland, a member of the Montrose Lakefront Coalition and the Lincoln Park Advisory Council, said a number of members of the group still have concerns about the festival that have been amplified by recent meetings.
“These kinds of big festivals really don’t belong in lakefront parks in the summer,” Niland said. “It was quite a surprise to find out they were going to move yet another festival to Montrose.”
Twitter @morgreene
