I went to the Nightfall website:

http://www.downtownchattanooga.org/nightfall/

First comment:
Volume Level
Could we get some sound guys that still have their hearing? There are speakers located throughout the Plaza. No need for the sound to be heard seven blocks away.
Don

What about the Chatanooga setup where distributed speakers (with time delay so the sound doesn’t muddy) let everyone listen with a more reasonable level of amplification. I understand it draws a more adult crowd. It would cost something to set up initially, but I’d count it as a worthwhile infrastructure improvement to the Square.

• We work hard to have a strong line of communication with those directly impacted by Sundown. Every year - after Sundown ends and before planning for the next season begins - AC Entertainment reaches out to Market Square merchants, property owners, and dwellers - along with City officials and others - to discuss Sundown. Our initial question is always the same: Do you want Sundown to continue? The answer - while not without some nuance - has always been overwhelmingly positive (I’m tempted to say 100% but perhaps not…)
• In addition to the possibility of letting Sundown fade away, we have specifically proposed the World’s Fair Park as an option. I’m not certain that it would work - it would be more expensive but frankly much easier in many ways…whether the location works for an event of this nature would have to be seen - but we have always been strongly dissuaded, both both Market Square merchants and City officials from pursuing that option. We continue to discuss it internally at AC however.
• When Bill Lyons organized the forum to discuss events policy with Market Square and downtown shareholders, Sundown was actually held up as a example of how to do things well.
• We are proud of the team that comes together to make Sundown a reality - from the sponsors, Mickey Mallonee and her team at the City, all of the police officers who work so closely with us, and all of the staff. They work hard. It’s a very challenging event to stage and there are a lot of factors to consider.
• Maintaining control over alcohol sales is one of our biggest challenges. We have developed innovative strategies to work with Market Square businesses so that they can participate in sales while staying within beer permit guidelines and insurance requirements. There is a reason that people can’t bring bottles of alcohol into the Square during the event…even if you’re allegedly on the way to some place else.
• Instances of underage drinking at Sundown are highly exaggerated. According to the police, the instances that do occur are seldom due to alcohol being purchased at the event for underage kids. Most common is that kids are bringing alcohol from home and consuming it beforehand or in the parking garages (this happens at high school football games, proms, and other events as well). At the event, our wristband system is very helpful in enabling the police and security teams to watch for potential violations and keep things under control.
• When I attend Sundown, I spend most of my time walking through the crowd, seeing who’s there, and watching how people are behaving. I’ve become especially sensitive to things with all of the chatter out there about masses of drunken stoned teenagers and old guys plying teenage girls with alcohol. Based on my observations, this is a very unfair characterization of the event. I do see a lot of teenagers being teenagers (and, yes, I understand that this can scare some folks to death!) and a lot of people of all ages having a really good time. I find the energy downtown on these evenings to be pretty exciting and invigorating, personally.
• As for the booking policy, I find the variety to be pretty strong. In fact, what’s frustrating to me is that the crowds are comparatively light to see acts like the fabulous Latin dance band, Grupo Fantasma and the Texas swing of the Belleville Outfit. Any Bonnie Raitt fan would love the powerful bluesy voice of Grace Potter and her soulful band. We had hip hop, country, folk, blues, reggae, funky jazz, and more.

We’re continually looking for ways to tweak and improve Sundown. There’s an undeniable truth that it’s success has become one of our biggest challenges. We’re certainly open to thoughtful discussions on how to make things better.

And it’s certainly reasonable to consider that perhaps Sundown has run its course or needs to be moved or whatever…although it’s interesting to think this way in light of it’s overwhelming popularity, at least for some (one of my favorite sayings about Sundown: “No one goes anymore because it’s too crowded.”) It’s not for everyone, to be sure, but that shouldn’t be translated into “it’s not for anyone.”

At any rate, I must say that I do not feel that this is completely my decision to make. We’ve got our own issues to consider in whether to continue with Sundown (the chief one being simply the time and effort vs steadily diminishing financial returns…which is another discussion entirely). But, for me, this is ultimately a community decision because Sundown is a community event…and it’s about much more than what I or any other individual wants or thinks.

At any rate, I hope everyone survived Cynthia’s party with no more than a flesh wound or two.

Sundown is a community building event more than it is a concert. It is a big reason that folks from the entire region see Downtown as their neighborhood now. It is a victim of being too successful. My fear is a move to World’s Fair Park would quickly turn it into a destination concert event that would have an entirely different character and would lose its community building function. There is a purpose for outdoor concert events such as the Hot Summer Nights Concert Series at World’s Fair Park. But the community building purpose of Sundown is different and has been a key to the current vitality of Downtown.

My solution is stricter underage consumption enforcement, increased security, and up and coming bands that are not known yet rather than name acts. But continue the regularity and the place for Sundown. Use World’s Fair Park for name acts for an entirely different series of charged concerts (e.g. Hot Summer Nights).

And yes, every teenager and college student and young adult who now sees Downtown as a cool place that is their neighborhood too as a result of experiencing Sundown is a future investor in keeping Downtown vibrant for years to come.

The fact that a few thousand other people want to use someone else’s neighborhood to party loud and get drunk every week for months on end should not be allowed to determine downtown’s future. City Police have spent a huge sum of money on a North Korean prison camp-style portable watchtower for the SDIC crowd. For heaven’s sake, doesn’t anyone wonder why we are inviting people downtown who need to be watched that way?? What does this say to visitors when the damn thing is left downtown for all to see for a week or two at a time, and for Farmers Market and Dogwood Arts Festival? Look at how cool we are world!

The most attractive urban areas to visitors are those where large numbers of people live and shop - Greenwich Village in Manhattan is a good example. Villages in France & Italy. The most attractive properties to live in should be those surrounding parks and public squares, but several younger people have already left Market Square because of the noise.

The level and frequency of noise from SDIC reduces the demand for residential properties nearby to younger people who are more willing to tolerate the noise and disruption while they are young and single. It discourages the expansion of demand to young families and older residents, and this in turn reduces property values and city property tax receipts, and discourages new retail businesses.

When all the retail businesses on the Square close early or don’t stay open late to take advantage of the crowd, it’s a bad sign. When vandalism is in the thousands of dollars per week and the parking garages are full of drunk teenagers it’s not good. When we drive spending away from nice restaurants and retail, and toward bars, we are headed in the direction of Beale Street, not Park Avenue.