Tentative parking restrictions, street closures for inaugural Music Tastes Good festival in Long Beach

Organizers behind the inaugural Music Tastes Good festival pledged that they will try to solve potential problems relating to parking and business owners’ abilities to serve their customers while the event takes place over the course of three late September days in the East Village area of Long Beach.

“No one is going to be blocked out of their home or business,” event organizer Josh Fischel said Thursday morning, during the first of two plaed meetings between festival plaers and concerned members of the public.

Materials handed out during the meeting reported that Music Tastes Good plaers will foot the parking bills for anyone who loses access to a paid parking space while street closures are in effect.

In, or out?

About 20 people attended Thursday’s meeting, which took place at Lafayette Condominiums. Those attending included business owners who were concerned whether street and sidewalk controls may prevent customers from patronizing their restaurants during the event. One issue of contention was whether plans to require festival-goers to remain inside Music Tastes Good’s enclosed area after entering the concert means East Village business owners will lose out on the chance to do business with those fans.

Fischel and Mark Magdaleno, who previously worked as a staffer for former Long Beach Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal and is now working as a liaison between festival plaers and the public, said during the meeting that allowing attendees to leave and re-enter festival grounds may create safety problems.

As explained by Fischel, allowing ins and outs may give some festival goers chances to obtain drugs or drink to excess before coming back to the concert grounds. Another potential problem, he said, is the possibility for long lines at festival gates when people reentering the event queue up next to new entrants.

Magdaleno said in a telephone interview after the meeting that residents living in the affected area and thus able to buy discounted $25 tickets to Music Tastes Good on Saturday, September 24 will get special wristbands allowing them to leave and reenter festival grounds. That said, the possibility of safety problems makes it hard to say other attendees will get the same privilege.

“They’ll look into it, but I don’t know how supportive I am of that,” he said.

Street closures

That meeting took place at Lafayette Condominiums, a residential building standing on a stretch of Linden Avenue that’s currently expected to be closed on Sept. 24, the second day of the festival.

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That day, a Saturday, is when organizers expect to see several hard street closures. Draft plans for Sept. 23 and Sept. 25 festivities require less restrictions, with the only firm street closure plaed for Elm Avenue, between E. Third Street and E. Broadway. On those days, organizers also plan to close the nearby parking lot around the former Acres of Books site as well as another parking lot near the northwest corner of First Street and Long Beach Boulevard.

On Sept. 25, plaed as the festival’s biggest day, more street closures are plaed.

Street plans are still a work in progress, but here are current plans for hard street closures on Sept. 24:

• The south lane of E. Third Street between N. Liberty Court and Broadway Court

• E. Broadway from Long Beach Boulevard to Broadway Court

• Alta Way from Long Beach Boulevard to Alamo Court

• Alamo Court from E. Broadway to E. First Street

• Elm Avenue from E. Third Street to near Alta Way

• Linden Avenue from E. Third Street to near Bronce Way

• Atlantic Avenue from E. Third Street to south of Broadway

• Westbound E. First Street from N. Frontenac Court to Atlantic Ave.

The next community meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at Padre, 525 E. Broadway.

Information: http://mtglb.co/

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify reporting on whether Music Tastes Good attendees will be able to leave and re-enter festival grounds.