What is known about Boomtown, amid the fog.

I'm going to tell you some things I know about the Boomtown festival, coming downtown on Sunday, May 24. If the following reports appear scant and contradictory, it's because I'm restricting sources to those that are open and public (yesterday's merchant meeting) or ones disclosed directly to me (the Flea Off e-mail). 

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We learned yesterday that the city of New Albany has ceded event planning sovereignty to the Louisville's musical promotions firm Production Simple as it pertains to control of alcoholic beverage vending at this year's second Boomtown show, slated for Sunday, May 24.

David Duggins told yesterday's Merchant Meeting attendees that last year's consortium of local businesses operating under the aegis of an NABC catering permit for the occasion, a group now formally chartered as the New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association, would not be repeated this year. No reason was offered for this.

Rather, in 2015 Production Simple will utilize its "preferred" and "professional" beverage caterer from Louisville, the name of which Duggins conceded he could not remember, although he repeated the word "professional" several times, and explained the caterer is "local" by virtue of having a warehouse located in New Albany.

In addition, the Louisville street bazaar known as Flea Off returns to Boomtown in 2015. Yesterday Duggins told the merchants that while local alcoholic alcoholic beverage vendors would be excluded from participation, local restaurants could contact Flea Off and register to serve food, even though a representative of Flea Off recently declaimed responsibility for both food and drink in an e-mail to the author.

Duggins also noted that while Flea Off vendors typically pay for their space, the city of New Albany has negotiated a special deal, and local retail stores and other entities will be allowed free booth space for Boomtown. Finally, the band Houndmouth will not be performing this year, as it did in 2014 at the conclusion of Boomtown, although the Houndmouth "brand" still fully backs Boomtown.

Now, many of you have asked me about beer for Boomtown and other summer events (Bicentennial Park concert series, July 3 fireworks, et al). Remembering that I'm on leave of absence from NABC in order to campaign for mayor, and have referred communications to others within the company, all I can say is that little is known to me or them. In short, the situation is almost completely opaque.

Unofficially, I am told that NABC beer will be sold by the "professional" caterer at Boomtown, but because no one knows who it is, and the level of craft beer commitment it possesses, there is simply no way for me to predict its offerings or how much it cares about craft. This, too, is opaque.

As to what happens when the concert series begins on Friday, June 5, it's also anyone's guess about vendors and beverage choices. As of this writing, no information has been forthcoming for public attribution, and there is no way of knowing whether local vendors will be involved, or Production Simple's "professional" caterer, or an entity yet to be revealed.

Frustrated by the persistent fog?

Trust me. I know how it feels. That's why I'm running for mayor in the first place.

We know there'll be jazz at the Amphitheater this weekend.

First, a bit about Jamey Aebersold, Bobby Falk and the relevant musical facts. As a devotee of jazz, which I sense is a dying breed, it's good to see some of our Riverfront Amphitheater time devoted to the genre. The following was copied from from Develop New Albany's weekly e-mail.

New Albany's Jamey Aebersold Performs this weekend at the Riverfront Amphitheater

New Albany’s Internationally Famous Jazz Musician & Educator Jamey Aebersold will perform Saturday evening at 7:30pm at the New Albany Amphitheater.

Aebersold's "Play-A-Long" series of instructional books and CD collections, using the chord-scale system are an internationally renowned resource for jazz education. More than 126 of these collections have been published by Aebersold. Jamey is also a very talented pianist, bassist, and banjoist.

Aebersold has also run the "Summer Jazz Workshop" sessions at the University of Louisville. Many leading educators and performers have served as Workshop faculty. The week-long event is billed as a place to learn jazz through hands-on experience, and provides an intensive learning environment for musicians of widely varying ages and levels. The standard Workshop curriculum includes master classes, ear-training sessions, jazz theory classes from beginning to advanced, and concerts by faculty

Also performing this weekend: The Bobby Falk Band

The Bobby Falk Band is a progressive band that incorporates jazz elements with covers and originality, constantly trying to appeal to more diverse audiences.

The band leader Bobby Falk has been a jazz musician all his life, as a composer, drummer and percussionist. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Studies (Percussion emphasis) from the University of Louisville School of Music in 2005, which included jazz studies abroad in Brazil, and performance experience/recording with Lew Soloff, Phil Woods, Curtis Fuller, Lionel Hampton, John Fedchock, Kenny Werner, Jimmy Heath, Jerry Coker, Bob Mintzer, among others.

The Bobby Falk band will take the Amphitheater stage on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

This leads me to my second, subsidiary point, and a paragraph in the weekly e-blast from the Clark & Floyd Convention and Tourism Bureau, in which it was noted:

"The music starts both nights at 7 pm at the Riverfront Amphitheater. Local merchants and organizations will offer food and beverages including craft beers from the New Albanian Brewery."

Given that I've heard nothing about our beer there until now, I suspect this is a misprint; inquiries are being made, so in the meantime, I'll repeat publicly what I've told so many of you privately.

There cannot be a free market when it comes to alcoholic beverages. State liquor regulations apply, and beer vendors at venues like the Amphitheater must operate under a three-way catering regime. The playing field is tilted from the start, and certain licensees (i.e., two-ways) are unable to play so long as vendors must acquire the necessary permits.

Also, as importantly, the Amphitheater is City Hall's domain, and City Hall makes rules of its own. Consequently, the riverfront committee is charged with deciding who vends and who does not, subject to the state's rules and the city's directives.

NABC is happy to do business with these chosen vendors, and to assist them in buying beer from us for resale to a grateful public. We always are eager to help them understand the nature of the craft beer demographic and how serving it could help them make money, but as we do not know who the chosen vendors are, and remain unaware of the committee's overall vendor policies this year, there is little NABC can do except hope that vendors approach us with their requests.

For those many local consumers who have expressed annoyance with the absence of craft beer choice at this year's events, I thank you for your comments, and I repeat: Please make your feelings known to the vendors and the committee. As a consumer, your job is to make demand known, and to clearly indicate the factors that inform your purchasing power. The semi-free market will adapt, or not; it's as simple as that.

Thanks. I appreciate the feedback.

Brutal day, great Celtic music and the usual -- you know, the usual Open Air Museum stuff.

At about a quarter 'til one on Sunday morning, I had a pint of Bitter in my hand, a stomach full of mussels, and was listening to a half-dozen musicians, some New Albanian locals and others from far-away Ballyfermot, all of them playing and singing together in the corner at Bank Street Brewhouse.

It's the little things that make it all worthwhile.

Saturday was a long, brutally hot and deathly humid day with far more in common with the equitorial rain forest than an ideal Southern Indiana day in June. Obviously, the Celts on the River show went on as planned in spite of the heat and a strictly personal level of annoyance with utterly non-communicative local powers that be which might have hit even higher on the Rog thermometer than the scorching surface temps; evidently, transparency ain't nuthin' but a four-syllable word that no one ever bothered to learn in school 'round here.

But please, let's accentuate the positive.

I crossed my fingers and NABC vended slightly more beer than last year while the great music was performed. Yes, the crowd seemed a bit down, which was understandable given the weather, but it was undoubtedly a successful event, and will be back in town next year. We may well have a tradition on our hands, but to preserve it, there needs to be a higher level of grassroots support on our side of the river. How we achieve that -- if it even is achievable -- I really don't know.

As for the usual local politician watch: Ed Clere and family were there. I saw Diane Benedetti and Pat McLaughlin (city councilpersons), and as always, searched in vain for Steve Price, Dan Coffey, Burger King and King Larry (who still believes he's a local politician). If I missed someone, please let me know. Gads -- a free concert, no tax monies extorted from them people, and still Professor Erika did not attend. Perhaps the inhaler tube got blocked with sticky tobacco bile.

By the way, in light of my experience yesterday, I have a question and follow-ups for the mayor at the coming mayoral forum on Wednesday, June 16:

Can we have fresh locally brewed craft beer down there at the waterfront for the approaching 3rd of July celebration, or is that one of the events arbitrarily selected to patriotically honor multinational swill?

What about the other events and how the city plans to treat 3-way supplemental catering permits?

Does anyone at City Hall know what 3-way supplemental catering permits are?

Is there a game plan for the decision-making process to award access to vending by the river, or is it a chaotic variation on the Oklahoma land rush?

Can you explain how the bidding system works?

Thank you.