A concert series scheduled at the Mud Island Amphitheater for April has been canceled as the city of Memphis cited “safety hazards” in the projected area.
The Downtown Neighborhood Association of Memphis announced that its concert series scheduled for next month is a “no-go” after receiving a statement from the city’s interim chief operating officer Antonio Adams.
In the statement, Adams said that it’s possible for the space to “once again be a great venue and event space,” but that it would be “irresponsible” for the city to ignore the venue’s dangerous conditions, citing a “financial risk to the city and taxpayers.”
After receiving the news, the group Save Mud Island and The Amphitheater posted a letter they received from a structural engineer that said the space was “structurally sound and safe.” The post said this was the second consultant they had had review the space.
“In my professional opinion, the overall structure appears to be in reasonably sound condition for its age and type of construction and does not pose an immediate threat to its structural capacity,” Jason Crum of Crum Engineering said in the letter.
While Crum said he believes there are no immediate threats, he did recommend a more “comprehensive analysis” be done by other engineers in various fields. He noted that his assessment did not “confirm code compliance for issues beyond the scope of structural engineering.”
The association noted that they consulted with an ADA professional hired by the city who cited “minor repairs.” Jerred Price, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association and founder of the Save The Amphitheater movement, went on to say there are other insurance concerns they plan to look into.
“We will continue to work with the mayor’s office to ensure that we can have concerts there in the near future,” Price said in a statement. “We will be meeting with the mayor himself very soon to discuss this conflicting report by the city’s hired architect — after all, we have had not one, but TWO structural engineers walk the property and tell us that the venue would be perfectly safe to host the pop-up concert series.”
In February, the two groups announced “The Comeback Concert Series” slated for April 18th, 19th, and 20th. At the time, Price said their final step was to meet with Memphis River Parks Partnership about the logistics of the event.
Price followed up on these conversations in a livestream where he stated that MRPP’s insurance policy does not cover events held at the amphitheater, but did give insight as to what the organizations would need to host an event.
“We have some questions regarding that liability insurance that we’re going to have to take back to the mayor’s office and the city because it’s a city-owned park [and] structure,” Price said. “I believe that the city’s general liability policy would be covering that particular venue as it covers all city-owned land and property. That’s to my understanding.”
Price said this does not mean they won’t have concerts at the Amphitheater; rather, there are still some “kinks to work through.”