Miami Beach wanted Pharrell. It’s getting a ‘Ninja Warrior’-style obstacle course instead
Miami Beach’s long-awaited spring break presentation to the City Commission fell flat during Wednesday’s meeting, with one board member calling it “half assed” and not worth the $1.5 million investment organizers asked for.
The city’s director of tourism unveiled his vision for how the city would use event programming during the month of March to diffuse raucous crowds expected to descend onto South Beach from across the country.
Branded as MYAMI BEACH 2020, the roughly monthlong festival at Lummus Park would include daily events and evening concerts. Planned activities ranged from beach cleanups to Instagrammable photo ops and performances by prominent artists like Pharrell or Juanes.
“We’re not here to get barefoot, drunk and fight on the beach anymore,” said Matt Kenny, the tourism director.
The problem, as commissioners would quickly point out, is that spring break is less than two months away and the city has not signed artists or booked dates for its beachfront programming.
So instead of approving the full $1.5 million request and taking a risk on signing yet-to-be-decided artists, commissioners gave the staff $500,000 to lock down daytime activities for March 7-28, when the city expects the most spring break visitors.
“I’m frankly pissed off that the administration is giving us this six weeks before spring break,” said Commissioner Ricky Arriola. “When we do something half-assed it embarrasses the city.”
He blamed City Manager Jimmy Morales with delaying the city’s presentation for months. Arriola had been in favor of bringing Ultra Music Festival to South Beach, before the electronic music festival reached an agreement with the city of Miami, but his colleagues did not share his enthusiasm in 2019 when the proposal was brought up, he said.
“Ultra would pay us $2 million,” he added. “Here we are paying them $1.5 million.”
He was far from the only commissioner with reservations. Every member of the board commented on problems they saw with the presentation and the overall planning of spring break.
Commissioner Micky Steinberg thought the city’s proposed branding of MYAMI BEACH would be perceived as a typo.
Mayor Dan Gelber said the city’s proposal would perhaps exacerbate the problems the city has experienced in years past by attracting an extra crowd interested in programming on top of the typical college-age revelers.
“We may entertain a lot of people who might not have been the problem and a self-selected group who are the problem may still go about their business,” he said.
Morales, who proposed the plan in a memo Wednesday to the commission, defended the presentation but ultimately acknowledged that it was difficult to deter wild crowds. But by shutting off a large stretch of Lummus Park, from Fifth to 10th streets, police may have an easier time and not see a repeat of last year’s festivities, which spawned international headlines about viral brawls caught on social media and criticism from social justice groups about the heavy police presence.
“We’re creating positive entertainment options for anybody who wants to be there,” he said. “Instead of spurning spring break we’re saying, ‘Let’s do it the right way.’ ”
The festival would run from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Sunday to Wednesday, and until 11 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday.
Planned activities include beach cleanups, fitness classes and an obstacle course similar to the one popularized in the reality TV show “American Ninja Warrior.”
Evening programming, which was not approved by the commission, would have included bonfires and movie nights.
Morales’ original resolution asked the commission to approve a $1.5 million no-bid contract with ACT Productions to develop the festival.
ACT Productions put together the city’s large-scale centennial celebration in 2015. More recently, the company served as the producer of the infamous Miami Beach Pop Festival. The three-day music festival was canceled in October.
The administration and Police Chief Rick Clements will return to the commission in February to discuss the possibility of extending Morales’ high-impact emergency powers from 72 hours to an entire month and limiting alcohol sales past midnight in the Entertainment District. Morales’ high-impact powers allow him to impose immediate measures related to public safety without commission approval.
“I’m not saying we’re all for it, I just want to see what it would look like,” Gelber said.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
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