The weather was hot on Saturday but that didnt stop people from enjoying the citys first big entertainment effort.
The Country in Colusa music festival featured three stages and eight country music acts, including headliner Jay Allen, whose band flew in from Iowa via Nashville.
” We did get stuck in the airport for about 10 hours but its great to be here in Colusa,” Allen said, after taking the main stage by storm.
While only a few hundred people attended the festive ” redneck rave,” city officials said 1,280 tickets had been sold in advance.
It is unknown if the high temperature caused some people to stay away from the Main Street and Levee Park festival but the event also faced heavy competition from the Yuba-Sutter Fair and a headlining comedian who performed two shows at the Colusa Casino Resort.
For those who did attend, the lack of a big crowd made the festival even more enjoyable, especially after the sun started going down and a slight breeze blew off the water and through the trees.
Colusa native Dana Straub, who came with her family from Nevada City specifically to attend the event, said the concert was awesome.
” I love that the city capitalized on a location so close to the river,” Straub said. ” The river is so important to our little town and its actually a lot cooler on Main Street than downtown.
The festival was held in the Old Chinatown District, with people sitting in the shade of Levee Park until the sun had gone down enough to shade the entire venue.
In addition to Allen, performers included Buck Ford, Presley & Taylor, Stoney Mountain Ramblers, Pleasant Valley Boys, Desert Moon Band, Dust in My Coffee, and Jimbo Trout.
” I was really impressed with the quality of performers,” said Colusa native Dick Armocido. ” I thought the concert was great. I got to see old friends who I havent seen in a long time.
Food trucks, a mechanical bull, a s’mores station, a VIP section, DFT cornhole, and a beer garden at the Tap Room rounded out the festivities.
While most people had no complaints other than the June heat, some concert goers said the distance from the entrance to the main stage was a difficult trek for disabled individuals. The inconvenience, however, was offset by the fun atmosphere, good food, and the beer, they said.
” It really is a nice event,” said Cathryn Hamilton. ” I hope Colusa has something like this every year. It could be a rock concert or a mixed music festival, I would come. I just wish more people would come out and support our events.
If anything marred the citys first big investment in entertainment, it was the lack of transparency about the cost of the concert and how the expenditures of tens of thousands of dollars managed to get approved without public or City Council input.
City Manager Jesse Cain and Mayor Josh Hill both claimed the City Council approved expenditures for the concert when they approved $25,000 for the development of a recreation program, but that claim is not exactly true.
A review of the meetings recording indicated that the City Council directed $25,000 to be spent from the general fund for a more robust recreation ” net neutral” program for children and adults through the end of 2021.
Hill, during the April 20 City Council meeting, specifically said the $25,000 was ” earmarked” for expenses like balls and nets and other incidental expenses of summer programs. A major ” for profit” music festival was never discussed, although he claimed later the citys intent for hosting the concert was to raise money to cover another event the city had planned for the Fourth of July, all with the purpose of developing Colusas tourism industry.
Adding to the publics confusion was a city administrator’s social media post days before the concert that the city fund raised for the event and that no ” taxpayer” funds were used.
Cain, however, said that the city plans to use proceeds from a $70,000 grant, which is taxpayer money, to cover the cost of staging amenities for the concert and other entertainment the city has planned, although the City Council has never discussed such a proposal.
While city coffers covered the upfront cost of the concert, Cain said he did have about $50,000 in donations pledged from sponsors that will be collected to help cover expenses.
When the City Council discussed and established a ” Tourism Fund” remains unclear, but city officials said donors include Colusa Industrial Properties, Hoblit Motors, Compassleaf, Greenseuticals, Bob Norman, Dave Swartz, Mannaco, and SF Metalworks. Charitable donations (especially to government agencies by local businesses that receive public services) can be tricky in that no goods or services can be exchanged for the donation, including complimentary tickets. Also, Cannabis businesses are not recognized by the federal government, which authorizes deductions for charitable contributions. Therefore, unlike other businesses, cannabis businesses would not be allowed to take a charitable deduction for the gifts they make, at least until federal law changes.
Cain said it would take a few weeks to get a final accounting for the massive concert, but he would make a presentation to the City Council. He said city staff would also go over what worked and what didnt so that they can make adjustments on future events.
Overall, the concert, although it did not garner the attendance city officials hoped, went off without a hitch. The event also had a large police and public works presence to make sure everything went smoothly.
People said the venue was beautiful with the streets lined with wine barrels and casks of flowers, and that they – some with children in tow – enjoyed the concert immensely. –