By Halisi Moyo
The annual Springfield Indie Soul Festival is interrupted for the first time in its 13-year history this year – not by criminals, but by law enforcement!
The independent outdoor soul music festival was started in September 2007 by promoters and performers, including ex-mayoral assistant Darryl E Moss, acclaimed soul singer Big Brooklyn Red, Andrew Keaton, and 90.7 WTCC Radio Personality James Lewis. The event draws a host of talents from top-rated Spoken Word, Acoustic, Soul, Jazz, and Gospel singers, along with a blend of America’s most sought-after unsigned artists. The list includes former R&B stars Tony Terry, Norman Connors, Brand Nubian, Melissa Morgan, Surface, the Delfonics, and many others.
The promoters worked hard to build an excellent collaborative project involving city government, businesses, and nonprofit communities to promote music, food, and business. For 12 years, the organizers were successful in their endeavor with no untoward incidents. In addition, the group had excellent relations with the city and various departments. Soon, the festival, recognized across the country as a viable venue not only for established artists but also for new ones.
All went well until August 21, 2021. On that fateful Saturday, preparations for the festival were on. The organizers reached Springfield’s Riverfront Park to kickstart the annual 10-hour non-stop event filled with music, books, and food with a beautiful view of the Connecticut River in the background. From 7 am to 11 am, food and retail vendors could be seen in the park fixing their tents and booths. The park was full of life. It was like any lovely summer day for the festival-goers. Music and colors filled the air as DJ’s Kevin Legend and DJ Boogie Entertainment take to the stages.
The day changed as the darkness arrived around 7:40 pm. Several Springfield Police vehicles entered the State & Columbus entrance with sirens booming, sealing the main gate and stopping patrons from entering or exiting the park.
“On Saturday, August 21, 2021, at 7:40 pm, the Springfield Police Department, roughly four cruisers with sirens blaring, pulled up and blocked the entrance of the Riverfront Park and a portion of West Columbus Blvd,” says Robert Jones, a volunteer. He also says that the police officers claimed that the organizers did not have the necessary permits. In addition, they were insulting and abrasive with visitors attempting to enter the park.
Jones tried to reason with the law enforcement by telling them that the Springfield Indie Soul Festival organizers had rented the park. However, the officers were in no mood to listen. “We weren’t told about any events going on today, and your permit says you only have the park until 8 pm!” one of the officers retorted.
The officer’s statement left the volunteer utterly confused. “How can the police not know about an authorized event or when the event was supposed to end?.”
Deputy Police Commissioner Steven Kent communicated to City Counselor Tracye Whitfield that the responding officers were assigned to the Downtown Initiative to deal with illegal street racers in the parking lots on East and West Columbus Avenues, particularly the parking lot at West Columbus and State St. However, the festival organizers said there were no street racers close to the park during the festival.
Kent also claimed that the first officer found the parking lot to be packed to its capacity and accused festival-goers of parking illegally.” Kent also said that the officer was unaware of permits given to the event organizers to park inside the park at the time of his arrival. Kent further states that the announcement made over the public address system was because of complaints by Insa, a neighboring business that festival-goers were allegedly parking in their lot.
“The police officer approached our volunteer, and at no time did he request to look at our permit, which could have easily resolved the situation,” says Darryl Moss, the festival curator.
Moss also says that State Representative Bud Williams, among the festival attendees, intervened and contacted Thomas Ashe, Chief of Staff for Domenic Sarno. The official informed Williams that he would give the organizers until 9 pm, and if it goes beyond that, the police will have to do their duty.
Williams states that he and his wife were enjoying the event when he was made aware that the police were blocking the front entrance and threatening to tow vehicles and end the event. “I immediately began to work on a resolution. First, I contacted the city and then worked to deescalate the situation.
Councilor Whitfield states, “the Indie Soul Festival has been a pillar event in the City of Springfield for the last 13 years. There has not been one single incident. How is it the committee followed all the permitting guidelines, yet the Chief of Staff, Tom Ashe, can decide to shut down the event by 9:00 pm when the permit clearly says 9:30? There were no incidents, nor was there a reason for the officers to be there in the first place. Why do we have a permitting process with procedures in place – if the administration can stop an event without a cause? This situation doesn’t sit well with me and many of my fellow city councilors!”
In a letter to City Councilor Whitfield, Kent claimed that the supervisor arrived within minutes, spoke to the event organizer, and learned that they had a permit till 9:30 pm. Kent also said there was “no attempt to shut down” the festival after officers discovered that it was an authorized event. “That is clearly a lie,” Moss says, adding, “At no point did I speak with anyone before they decided to shut down the festival at 9:00 pm.”
Moss also derides Kent’s claim that his officers were concerned about the safety of those crossing the tracks both on foot and by vehicle prompting the police to contact Amtrak to send a representative to monitor the crossing.
“That too is a lie; the Amtrak representative had been at the park since 7:00 am and had been in constant communication with festival organizers and security staff all day long. We were kept abreast of the train schedule throughout the day without issue,” Moss says.
Moss says that Kent and the police department were inventing reasons to justify the police presence in the area that day. “I don’t believe they were expecting to be greeted by State Representative Bud Williams, so now they are creating responses.”
Jones also backs Moss saying the officers present at the scene were also rude to the patrons of the festival, many of whom were elderly.
“The Springfield Indie Soul Festival kicked off at noon, and vendors started arriving to set up their stalls at around 7 am, which was the time the Amtrak officer opened the gate for us. So we were in the park along with City of Springfield workers: electrician and maintenance for 12+ hours straight with no issues from the police who routinely drive up and down West and East Columbus Blvd,” Jones said.
Kent also tried to deflect the issue in his correspondence. He said the officers were concerned about public safety once organizers cleared the initial police confusion.
“I believe that after the initial confusion regarding the event and permit, there was no attempt to end the concert. From that point on, the officers were concerned only with public safety related to parking, traffic control, and the train tracks. It also appears that after this point, all interactions between the police officers and event-goers were cordial and non-confrontational,” Kent wrote.
Organizers have accused Kent of clearly missing the conversations on race and race relations with the Springfield Police Department. “We strongly encouraged eventgoers not to interact with police and to be cordial if approached. We did this because they arrived looking for a confrontation. So if Kent believes that the point was to be cordial, Kent needs to know we were cordial to prevent his officers from being confrontational,” Moss says.
Jones also says that it was reckless of the officers to use scare tactics against “our elderly patrons and children” who “were truly afraid for their safety (from the police).”
“We paid for the park, had security, had an Amtrak officer on duty to ensure safety around the train track, and paid to have the requisite City of Springfield employees on site. We did everything by the book, and during the 13 years of having this annual event, we never had any issues with deviant or misbehavior or with the Springfield Police Department until now,” says Jones.
He says as the ‘The Delfonics’ approached the stage, many attendees started leaving early for fear of arrest or of their cars being towed.
“Not only did retaliatory behavior of the Springfield Police Department hurt the overall good time the patrons were having, it also damaged our reputation with the perceived appearance that we (the Springfield Indie Soul Festival committee) did something wrong,” Jones said.
Moss says State Representative Bud Williams had scheduled a meeting with Mayor Domenic Sarno to discuss what took place and help organizers and members of the Black community understand why the city felt police action was necessary.
Williams says he will not stop until this is resolved.
