Orion Festival 2014

[Johnnny5]

So this is "Good News" to some people? I'm not sure how. Possibly the most popular heavy metal band of all time decides to bring a festival to Detroit. The first year nobody knows what to expect, as it's trying to gain its footing and establish itself. I'm sure there were a lot of wrinkles, as there should be putting on a show this large. I hear all the time from people saying that it'd be nice if Detroit had a festival like Bonaroo or Coachella to hang its hat on. I'm fairly certain those festivals didn't draw hundreds of thousands in their infancy.

You guys really thought it was so "disruptive" to other users of the park, yet I don't hear you bitching and moaning about the Grand Prix every year or the boat races. Don't be selective and single out something when there are other events that take over the entire island for a weekend as well. I almost think it's a perfect spot for a concert venue. Or would you rather have music blaring in downtown for three days like DEMF, with people trashing the city and nobody left to pick up after it once it's over?

How did the city gain "very little" from the concert? They got paid to host it, the fields that it took place on were replanted by the concert promoter, and it essentially gave Detroit another event that to host on a yearly basis. I think that hosting a signature event like this is exactly the type of thing Detroit needs, and the mentality that it's small potatoes and no big deal is flat out wrong.

The "good news" is those that would like to use the park for things like fishing, picnics, hand ball and cycling won't be blocked from doing so for weeks on end this year. The Orion Festival closed the entire park to just about every other use for 3 days, and the preparations and cleanup closed sections of the park for weeks. If the Orion was the only event that did this there would not be a lot of complaining, but add the Grand Prix and the boat races and we have nearly half of the prime summertime dealing with closures, barricades and construction crews.

I have zero issues with the Orion Festival coming to Detroit, heck I even considered going to it myself last year. The problem I have is it's a for profit festival and allowing it to basically take over the entire island is not an appropriate use of a public park. You mention both Bonaroo and Coachella, but both of these festivals are held in the sticks and on private property, not a major city or a park. A better example would be Lolapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park. The bad part there is in years past rain turned the location into a mud pit and the large number of attendees caused major damages that closed sections of the park for months and cost nearly 1 million dollars to repair.