The strains of the music, the roar of the crowd, you know what that is, really? That’s what the business part of show business sounds like.
That’s the sound of commerce; the sound of paying customers, many of whom did not get out of the county without buying some food or gas or beer or ice or sunscreen or what have you, at a local store.
As many as 12,000 or so people descended on Wiscasset for Oxxfest, a one-day event July 31. Nobody died. They got in and out safely, by all accounts had a good time; money was made by local vendors; bands, fans and the public safety apparatus all did what they do best.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the tumult of a hard rock concert going on next door was a burden on at least some the residents in the immediate neighborhood, and that should not be dismissed lightly in the rush of money counting, back patting, and self congratulating.
However, events like this weekend are exactly what businesses in this area needed. We commend raceway owner Doug White for having the courage and vision to embrace this opportunity when it came up and we commend New England Concerts and Waterfront Concerts for, by all accounts, organizing and pulling off the kind of event concertgoers will remember fondly for years.
We also commend our local officials, police, fire, ambulance and emergency services for getting out ahead in the planning for this event.
In fact, the Lincoln County Commissioners struck the only sour note in the run up to the concert when they called county and Wiscasset public safety personnel to an emergency meeting July 29.
Remember, the concert was actually in Wiscasset and Wiscasset officials already signed off on the event, and they did so with a distinctive ‘wait and see how this goes’ before they would consider another one.
Further, by the time Wiscasset held a public hearing on this in June, all the stakeholders, the promoter, racetrack ownership, Wiscasset and county law enforcement, had already been to the table together. That was the time to raise questions.
Then there is the issue of Commissioner Sheridan Bond, a respected, veteran public servant claiming he had a source in Oxford he wouldn’t name, citing problems he wouldn’t divulge as a reason for this official paranoia fest.
We were led to believe these problems apparently included massive arrests, a tripling of the jail population, and a strain on the local resources, all leading to the decision to expel Oxxfest from Oxford.
We actually checked with Oxford officials, and they uniformly said both concerts mentioned, the 2009 Oxxfest and the 2010 Nateva Festival it was confused with during last week’s meeting, went off without a hitch.
The 30 or so arrests related to Nateva hardly sounds like a crisis considering the 10,000 or so people who attended the three-day festival.
It is flat out ridiculous to argue policy based on unsubstantiated rumor and rumor that is easily checked and put on the record by calling an Oxford town official, like say, the police chief.
A consultation with the commissioners was certainly appropriate, but in this case, the commissioners waited until the last minute to call an emergency meeting, based on false information to boot.
The bottom line is this wasn’t a crisis. It was an opportunity, thankfully one all parties involved made the best of.
