Is Thorogood too rowdy?

George Thorogood headlined concert to start one hour earlier

By Lara Becker Liu
Democrat and Chronicle

(April 24, 2003) — The show will go on -- but it will be quieter, cleaner and end an hour earlier. In response to neighbors’ concerns about a George Thorogood blues concert planned for the final day of the Lilac Festival in Highland Bowl, the three-member board that governs the popular festival announced these and other changes Wednesday.

In addition to concluding the Thorogood concert at 7 p.m. and capping attendance at 6,000, Lilac Festival Inc. and organizer Beau Productions promised to provide extra police support, re-examine traffic patterns and make available a hotline number -- (585) 256-4960 -- to connect area residents with on-site staff during the event.

About four dozen area residents had complained about the re-emergence of a national musical act in the bowl because of the associated noise, crowds and mess.

Joan Gray Lindberg, a coordinator for the Lilac neighbors, said the plan announced Wednesday wasn’t enough to satisfy neighbors’ demands. She questioned whether tickets to the concert would be numbered and whether organizers had thoroughly researched alternative concert sites.

“This (concert) shouldn’t be going on in the first place,” she said. “These are minor concessions.”

Lilac Festival Inc. members conceded that they had not adequately communicated to neighbors their plans to revive the concerts, which were informally ended in 1998.

But Craig Curran, Lilac Festival Inc. president, said Wednesday that the paid musical event “is an appropriate use of the concert bowl facility.”

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