Birmingham Loses Ozone War

by Glynn Wilson

After waking up Monday morning with an asthma attack after spending Saturday and Sunday trudging around in the heat at City Stages, and then reading the newspapers online this week, a couple of things are becoming clear about my home town in spite of the ozone haze.

The Birmingham News editorial department is reporting that the City Stages Music Festival is saddled with debt and may lose money again this year, right alongside an editorial saying the city is losing the war on ozone.

Here’s a connecting the dots moment. Ozone builds up in the summer heat thanks to Alabama Power’s coal-fired power plant pollution and the area’s suburban sprawl, which makes it necessary for the people of Birmingham to drive everywhere they go. So why hold the city’s premiere music event of the year during ozone season?

Move the festival to, say, Mother’s Day weekend instead of Father’s Day weekend.

Birmingham had an incredibly cool spring this year, in part due to a quirky side effect of global warming - a cooling effect in the Southeast. Mother’s Day weekend would have been a great time to hold an outdoor festival this year. It might be a better time of year every year.

And here’s another clue. Don’t try to compete with the New Orleans Jazzfest or the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. Birmingham is not a world class city and City Stages is not a world class festival. Sorry to say it, but it is our job to call them like we see them and tell the truth.

The Fairgrounds in New Orleans draws people from all over the world because New Orleans has a long history of creating original musical talent. Taylor Hicks may be the winner of a stupid TV talent show, but he’s not an original talent. He’s a copycat. So is City Stages.

Here’s another message for the organizers of the festival. If any media outlet, even a blogger, wants a press pass to the event, give it up heartily. You need all the publicity you can get. Why be arrogant about it and act like you hold the golden key to some sacred temple? It’s a piece of plastic to get into a second rate concert.

Chances are, the media coverage will help draw people in the future and, if other reporters and bloggers are anything like us, they will eat enough food and drink enough beer to more than make up for the revenue you would lose on a day pass.

Here’s an alternative suggestion. If you just have to hold the festival on the third weekend in June, why not come up with a theme to make City Stages about helping the Birmingham environment? Rather than promoting Alabama Power at the festival, why not use the event to pressure the Southern Company subsidiary to do more to clean up the air?

Maybe then more people would come to the festival - and not wake up after it’s over with asthma.

Disappointing day sales

Entering the ozone zone