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Despite recent bad luck the 2009 Mifflin Street Block Party has had acquiring sponsorship, the University of Wisconsin’s WSUM 91.7 confirmed Thursday the station is looking to potentially manage a soundstage at the event.
According to Dave Black, administrative program manager at WSUM, the radio station has been approached to possibly take over a soundstage at the block party, and the station is taking the proposal into consideration.�
“We are definitely considering it,” Black said. “Mifflin Street’s a great thing, and we want to help in any way we could, especially if we could help the neighborhood and make it a big success.”
Black said if WSUM receives approval from the university, the soundstage would be run like many other events the station has managed, including the Snake on the Lake festival.�
However, because the university may have discouraged the Wisconsin Union Directorate from sponsoring Mifflin, Black says their decision may preclude WSUM as well.
On April 1, WUD turned down the chance to sponsor the event citing a lack of time and money. However, Mifflin’s most recent woes occurred Wednesday when DCNY PRO, a local music and event production company, also decided not to sponsor the event, also citing a lack of time and funding.
WSUM has yet to seek the university’s approval.�
“We’re obviously running out of time,” Black said. “We have to do something soon if [we] want to do it, [but] we’re open to it.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, would not comment in detail on the possibility of WSUM running the soundstage for the event because plans are still tentative.
“It’s a work in progress,” Verveer said. “I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up that we’re going to be able to pull this off given the certain amount of time we have to work with.”
Although the involvement of WSUM at Mifflin is a possibility, Black stressed the radio station is in no way looking to be a sponsor of the event.
Lt. Kristin Roman of the Madison Police Department said a sponsor or organizer of the block party could make Mifflin a better-organized and more universal event. A stage, food and other amenities — which could make the party more substantial — can only be brought forward with the help of an organization.
Recently, the Mifflin Street Block Party has been “lost or obscured,” she added.
“[An organizer] provides a beginning, a middle, an end and a focus, and that’s what’s missing in many ways from the Mifflin Street event,” Roman said. “In the history of the event, it was a much more globalized-type event [with a] purpose.”
Joel DeSpain, spokesperson for the Madison Police Department, said for decades a key component of Mifflin was political activism, adding it was not just a block party where people became “shockingly” inebriated.
“It was a time to talk, a time to get together, there was music and stages,” DeSpain said. “It was more organized at that time, and I think a lot of the problem associated with Mifflin the last couple of years really came out when there was not a time of sponsorship or activism; it sort of became a right of passage to party on this day on this street.”
The MPD wants people to have a fun time on May 2, but if people start to act as catalysts for bad behavior, there will be police intervention, DeSpain said.
The MPD has been meeting with Mifflin residents since February, and a major concern was the noise ordinance, Roman said.�
Without a set band or soundstage, Roman said people who host private bands, whose music can be heard three doors down, may be subject to noise violation ticketing.
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I doubt that anything will come of WSUM’s move to host a stage. WUD’s original intention was to do just that- pay for the cost of a stage and seek out the performers. The city has made it apparent that if you want a stage you need the whole street, which includes all the variables that Verveer doesn’t reveal to any of the organizations he approaches to sponsor until there is a meeting with the street use team. There is a street use permit to obtain, security costs (equaling a percentage of the $80k that it costs to staff police on Mifflin), clean-up costs, barricade costs, etc. It is apparent that the majority of students do not want Mifflin sponsored but what I think is interesting is that no one is asking if students want live music at Mifflin (obviously they go hand and hand), but I think a lot of people have lost sight of the original intention. I think drinking beer and listening to live music go hand-in-hand. Wouldn’t Mifflin be a better experience with quality, regulated live music?
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The MPD in the past has said the reason for the noise ordinance is because they need to be able to hear and be able to talk through their communication system. It seems like if there is an official stage for the Mifflin Street Block Party the music will be heard from a lot farther than 3 houses away, but suddenly police and government officials are okay with it? Maybe if the people who are trying to run this event just told us the truth behind their reasoning a lot more would get accomplished. Instead, we’ve had several failed attempts at getting a sponsor for this event (which is fine by me) because everyone has their own secret agenda.