OSA Manages 2008 McCarren Pool Concert Venue
October, 22 2008
McCarren Park is the largest park in North Brooklyn and serves as more than a local park for Williamsburg and Greenpoint - it is a regional park for neighboring communities. McCarren Park Pool is a WPA era landmarked structure, bereft of water for more than two decades, which served as an event venue for the past three years. The Pool is now undergoing renovation for summer swimming, winter ice-skating, and year-round recreation within the former bathhouses. Renovation completion is targeted for 2011; OSA is seeking a performance venue for summer 2009.
After more than 500 recipients of a Parks Dept RFP did not bid on building the Pool stage and related infrastructure for summer 2008, OSA stepped forward to insure that our community enjoyed the much beloved programming. We hired the local stagehands union, built the stage and sound mix platform, brought in about 40 toilets/sinks (and maintained them), 2 trailers to serve as dressing rooms and offices for production staff. wi-fi, portable generators providing 800 amps of power, on-site generator technician, created safe staircases and accessibility, provided barrier and barricade for crowd control, multiple tents for catering and vendors, hired 24/7 site security and an experienced Facility Manager, and ran the daily operations etc. Even music blogs (e.g., Limewire) credited OSA with having better managed the concerts than the concert promoter themselves did in earlier years.
Programming at the Pool was set up to have ticketed concerts subsidized free events for the community. In fact, of more than 60 events during summer, only 9 shows (plus two benefit) concerts were ticketed; all other events were free.
The concerts at the Pool are widely known and acclaimed, with McCarren Park Pool named Rolling Stone’s #1 Concert Venue. Less well-known is the fact that more than 2/3rd of the programming was not concerts, and included: an artists’ slideshow/potluck dinner, yoga/meditation, crafts fair, skateboard competition, experimental Shakespearean based theater; the weekly cult classic movies drew crowds of several thousand (Williamsburg/Greenpoint does not have a movies theater.)
