Concertgoers Provide Food For Thought To Park Officials

James Mullen loved the music at the John Denver concert Sunday night, but concert rules gave him a Rocky Mountain low.

Mullen planned to write a letter to concert organizers complaining that audience members weren’t told that they couldn’t bring food and drinks into the roped-off arena in Riverfront Park.

He also was concerned about safety, considering the concert had only one exit for the 3,618 people who attended.

“I want positive change,” Mullen said.

“I’m not grumping just to grump. I want to make sure these concerts succeed. They’re such a great idea.”

Mullen was among dozens of concertgoers who complained about a lack of restrooms, lack of entrances and exits, and a ban on bringing food into the concert area.

Park manager Hal McGlathery acknowledged that the park’s concert series needs to work out kinks, including exit problems.

The staff met Monday morning to talk about what the park can do for future concerts.

“When we have exciting programs, they’re treated a little bit differently,” McGlathery said.

“It’s our call.”

The food ban was advertised in the newspaper.

For the Bob Dylan concert in June, food was also banned.

That was the first large show in the park.

The ban for closed, admission-only concerts will probably stay.

The food ban provides a way for the park to make money.

Riverfront Park receives 20 percent of the money from food sold by private vendors inside the arena and all of the revenue from its own concession stands.

For the Bob Dylan show, that meant $4,861.86.

And for the John Denver show, it meant about $6,300.

“It’s an opportunity to offset operational and management costs of the park and to make the event more financially successful,” McGlathery said.

Most people were told to eat any food they brought at the gate or throw it away.

Some, such as Mullen, talked their way through the door. He brought a teriyaki chicken bowl from Jack in the Box.

The food piled up outside. At some point in the evening, somebody at the gate decided to take the food to Crosswalk.

“Some well-meaning person down there thought rather than see it go to waste, they’d bring it down here,” said Ken Trent, executive director of Volunteers for America.

“We’re in a bind over something like that.”

Trent said he wasn’t sure how much food was dropped off or whether Crosswalk accepted the food.

Donating the food wasn’t endorsed by the park or Crowd Management Services, which worked the gate, McGlathery said.

“It was a surprise to everybody,” he said.

“Unless it were sealed in some way, it’s probably not a good idea to do that.”

Despite the food ban, some changes will be made at future park concerts.

The number of portable toilets will probably be tripled, to about 18.

The exit problems need to be looked at, along with security for the artists and their entourage.

Mullen will probably come back for a Riverfront Park concert - especially if Denver returns.

“It was a beautiful concert,” he said.

“It was great, it was fantastic. It was just soured by the way we were treated by the handlers of security.” , DataTimes