OLD BUSINESS  1.

COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM

KEY INTENDED OUTCOME:
Maximize The Miami Beach Brand As A World Class Destination

HISTORY:
This discussion was referred by the City Commission to the Neighborhood/ Community Affairs Committee and was reviewed at the October 27, 2017 Committee meeting, with a request for more information to be provided by the event producer at the subsequent Committee meeting.  

ANALYSIS:

Miami Beach-based ACT Productions (Producer), which worked with the City of Miami Beach to produce the City’s successful Centennial Celebration in March, 2017, has expressed interest in a partnership with the City to produce a similar three-day holiday concert event, currently being called the “Miami Beach Pop Festival” (Event), to be produced annually, starting in 2018.  The proposed location would be the beachfront between 5^th Street and 10^thStreet, similar to the Centennial event area, with the inaugural dates from Friday, December 14, 2018 through Sunday, December 16, 2018. 

The Producer describes the Event as a celebration of music, art, food and the City’s diversity, to feature top headline and local musical artists.  Headlining artists suggested by the event producer might include: Arcade Fire, Bruno Mars, Dave Matthews, Hall & Oates, Elton John, Enrique Iglesias, Frank Ocean, Halsey, Jimmy Buffett, Juanes, Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Lionel Richie, Lorde, Luis Fonsi, Mumford & Sons, Muse, Neil Young, Niki Minaj, Phil Collins, Ringo Star, Robert Plant, Stevie Nicks, The Weeknd, and  Zedd.  The festival would follow in the spirit of the New Orleans Jazz Festival in New Orleans, LA, or the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, CA, and feature three stages in the event area. Anticipated attendance for the inaugural event is estimated at between 25,000 and 35,000 attendees each day. Additional activations would take place City-wide, in hotels, restaurants, and other venues. 

The festival will feature two stages, with acts performing Friday, December 14, 2018 and Saturday, December 15, 2018 from 1:00 pm until 12:00 am (midnight) and Sunday, December 16, 2018 from 1:00 pm until 11:00 pm.  Per the event producer, load in is expected to begin on Monday, December 10, 2018, with load out completed Thursday, December 20, 2017, representing a total displacement time of eleven (11) days for the beachfront event area. 

 These proposed event timelines are immediately following and may overlap with the Scope Art Fair Special Event permit, which takes place on the beachfront between 8^th and 10^th Streets and is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, December 9, 2018, with load out likely through Sunday, December 16, 2018.  The Scope Art Fair requires thirty (30) days of beachfront displacement as part of their event activation and loading.  The Miami Beach Centennial event, which was a larger event footprint, but provided a similar levels of musical talent,  consisted of five (5) days of activations (March 22 through 26, 2015), with twenty (20) load in days and eight (8) load out days, for a total of thirty-three (33) days the event space was utilized.

Staff is working with the Greater Miami Visitor and Convention Bureau and the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority to gather hotel occupancy and resort tax comparbles for this period of the season, to determine whether general tourism trends during this week following Basel activity, and will be ready to present this data at the Committee meeting.