UPDATE. 7:35pm Mar 25th. - Thank you to all of those who wrote letters for this campaign. We are postponing the launch of live music in The Vibe Garden which we will share when plans are able to be made. The Moon Hooch show originally scheduled for The Saucy Brew Works Vibe Garden on April 2nd has been moved to The Cleveland Masonic Auditorium's Demolay Room at 3615 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44115
This venue is 80% smaller than the Vibe Garden. Limited tickets remaining. All old tickets will be honored. New event times, doors at 6pm, show at 7pm.
Dear Friends,
We’re starting a letter-writing campaign to combat local political forces to cancel our April 2nd concert in The Vibe Garden. The full story is below. For TLDR skip to the bottom. We need your help to email city officials, or the show will be canceled.
__________________ I must admit that while I like the band Moon Hooch a lot, I’ve met Mike and Wenzel and they’re talented fun people, but the time, and energy to host this show is not worth the entertainment value - it’s a serious amount of work. The Vibe Garden isn’t worth it either. It’s just a gravel lot on a block of Cleveland that’s become a knowingly pretentious facade. But I looked at it one day and thought… you know, that gravel lot is enclosed, a great size for a show, and with some fun, talented people, connected with a great craft brewery - This could be the start of the music venue I am meant to make in Ohio City, maybe. I wanted to hold this one show as a fundraiser for Greyt Culture’s community work, have a really ridiculously good time, and if it turned into more, great.
This has officially turned into something more, but not in the way I expected it might. I would like to bring to light the problem anyone in Cleveland faces in doing fun, interesting, life-giving things that make a city worth living in: City Hall’s fear of the "Block Club.” The Vibe Garden is on private property that has been operating for 2 years as an entertainment venue. The Saucy Brew Works owners and I contacted the local councilman, Kerry McCormick on February 24th to share plans and enlist his help to facilitate the concert’s success. He didn’t respond. He waited to respond until the neighborhood block club asked him if he knew about this on an email chain I started as a courtesy invitation to them on March 16th. He decided that this would need to go through the special events planning committee and directed the city's special events manager to set up a meeting for me. The meeting was used as opportunity to bring forth knowledge of a zoning permit that lapsed on the vibe garden lot. A technicality that Saucy Brew Works was of the understanding the city had the necessary paperwork for. Block club members on the call were delighted that this error of record was brought to the table, insistent that this area not become an entertainment district, and this concert must not happen. Not for safety, or anything reasonable, they just don't want the bother of a lot of people coming to this neighborhood. Whether they actually want to cancel this event or if they're trying to signal that they're doing the “right thing” to keep the riff-raff out, I’m not sure. To anyone who thinks that the largest urban density of young affluent people in the city is not becoming a place for retail and entertainment of all forms, what century do you live in? That ship has sailed. This is a modern progressive city, not a cold war-era suburb. As of today, Moon Hooch at The Vibe Garden is on hold and very possibly will be canceled unless the paperwork pushes through the system at city hall against the will of the block club. We were anticipating around 1,000 attendees to come. That’s about 10% of what you need to win an election for a city council seat so I am betting 1,000 emails to the councilman and the mayor will get some buerocratic paper to move at a pace that would allow us to enjoy a nice night of music, beer, food, and art in the city without this kind of torment. I believe our new Mayor is level-headed enough to take insightful action on this matter. If you are planning to attend the show on April 2nd, or if you’re tired of seeing NIMBY nay-sayers keep Cleveland in the same old cycles:
Send an email with your name and support of Greyt Culture’s April 2nd Concert at The Vibe Garden
subject: KEEP THE VIBE Emails to copy:
kmccormack@clevelandcitycouncil.org, jbibb@clevelandohio.gov, Communications@clevelandohio.gov, SMartin3@clevelandohio.gov Councilman: kmccormack@clevelandcitycouncil.org Mayor: jbibb@clevelandohio.gov, Communications@clevelandohio.gov Building & Housing: SMartin3@clevelandohio.gov Thank you for helping make this happen, friends and "Block Club" members reading… thank you for challenging me to see this moment as an opportunity. Yours Truly, Thomas Fox
Greyt Culture