First in a series.
Re “Mandell’s Summer Music Festival Comes Home Thursday”
[img]2657|right|Gary Mandell||no_popup[/img]On the eve of Opening Night of the Summer Music Festival in the Courtyard of City Hall, producer Gary Mandell’s sly, wry sense of humor was in mid-season form.
“Fourteen, huh? Shouldn’t I have graduated by now?”
When Andre Theirry and Zydeco Magic step on stage tomorrow evening at 7, Mr. Mandell officially will launch his 14th season as the producer of what now is clumsily known as “Culver City’s Boulevard Music Summer Festival.”
It has been a rocky, sometimes bomb-laden, trip to the top of the mountain. Often the offstage drama has surpassed what goes on out front.
Seeking to mollify his restless amateur critics, Mr. Mandell said that with one exception, “there is a new act every week plus repeats on two of the other nights” in the six-week series.
He was asked if he considered it a victory last month when the City Council declined the request of a persistent critic on the Cultural Affairs Commission to advertise – again – for a new producer for next year’s Summer Music Festival.
“Did it raise my spirits?” he asked, rhetorically.
After a long pause, “I have gotten beyond that,” he said. “I don’t get excited one way or the other. If they like me to do it, I will be glad to do it. I feel I do a good job.
“They were talking about producing next year’s concerts. That wasn’t necessarily like voting for me to do it. Just not putting it out to bid.
“Obviously, we still have to negotiate some things for next year,” Mr. Mandell said.
For several years there has been talk of drastically altering the Summer Music Festival format if/when the venue is shifted to Parcel B, if/when that is built out, presumably in two or more years. The future remains a clouded vision.
(To be continued)
