Local corporate media gushed over the announcement of a new festival to be held in late August at, of all places, Monroe Park.

But did not tackle one bit logistical questions, ticket prices, or what is essentially the neoliberal privatization of a PUBLIC park. No questions about where the money is coming from to hold the concert or where the proceeds are going.

For some older residents, this announcement recalls wistful days of (free) Bruce Springsteen concerts under the trees in the park, but this is no longer the wooded, historic, PUBLIC park that they remember. The City and VCU have made sure of that over the last ten years or so– taking down many trees, kicking out poor people, and turning it into a VCU quad.

Many Oregon Hill residents love and take part in music, but many are also beginning to realize what is happening to the City as poor people and wildlife are deliberately driven out. The great African musician Fela Kuti famously said that “Music is the weapon of the future”. Sadly, locally, it is increasingly being wielded by powerful interests against those who can’t readily defend themselves.