.jpg)
*City officials in Riviera Beach, Florida were looking into the conditions that sparked the uncharacteristic on-stage breakdown of beloved R&B legend Patti LaBelle during the city’s annual Jazz and Blues Festival last weekend.
After running the event in-house since 2001, the city opted this year to contract with a promoter who promised to bring in bigger and better acts. But the expanded lineup last weekend pushed the start time of its 61-year-old headliner to midnight, when temperatures had dipped to record lows of around 50 degrees. The weather, coupled with the late hour, proved to be a disastrous combination for the Philly-born entertainer.
LaBelle, paid $125,000 up front to headline the event, complained to the crowd that she had been waiting for hours to perform, and felt organizers, as a matter of principle, should have moved her ahead of lesser-known acts, like R&B singer Eric Benét. The stress and cold temperature rendered LaBelle’s voice less than 100 percent, causing the singer to break down in tears and cut short her performance.
By Monday, the city had already begun its Monday morning quarterbacking. Mayor Michael Brown, who called the incident a “black-eye” for the city, says Riviera Beach is now forced to bear the brunt of mishandling one of America’s greatest singers. Brown says he was left out of this year’s festival planning, and blames city officials for trying to make the event bigger than necessary.
"When we started this event the idea was to create a positive image for the city of Riviera Beach," Brown told the Palm Beach Post. "The worst thing you could have done is what happened last Saturday night. They let Patti LaBelle leave here with that kind of image of Riviera Beach."
Council Chairwoman Liz Wade said the city council will hold a workshop to evaluate the event. Topics to be discussed will include everything from its cost to whether to return to organizing it in-house or to enter into future contracts with promoters, she said.
"There are some lessons to be learned," Wade told the Palm Beach Post.
Brown says he’s looking forward to the workshop to shed light on the costs, which, by his own calculations, reached about $800,000, compared with last year's $330,000.
"I think people are going to be shocked, disappointed and surprised," Brown said. "It's going to be a financial nightmare."
City Manager Bill Wilkins said it's too early to evaluate whether the festival was a financial success. He also claims that the delay in LaBelle’s start time was due to the large chunk of time spent between acts to tear down and set up equipment. Given the circumstances, Wilkins said he understood LaBelle's frustration and characterized the outcome as a learning experience.
----------------------------------
HOOK UP WITH HOLLYWOOD POWER BROKERS! Only at Film Life and HBO's American Black Film Festival can you get exclusive screenings, parties, premiers, panel, workshops and the chance to literally rub shoulders with Hollywood's elite. July 19-23 in South Beach. For more info, click: www.ABFF.com