Chastain Park group says planned Halloween night show more trick than treat

After R&B artist Steve Lacy’s Oct. 30 show at Synovus Bank Amphitheater came close to selling out, promoter Live Nation last week added a second concert on Halloween night.

That particular day, however, has concerned some neighborhood residents who are trying to get the second show moved to a different date.

Joe York, president of the Chastain Park Civic Association, said hundreds of kids will likely be trick-or-treating in the surrounding neighborhood on Halloween as concertgoers arrive.

Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park was built in 1944 and is one of Atlanta’s oldest music venues. (Rodney Ho/AJC)

“This feels like a totally needless risk to take with the neighborhood around the venue, especially for children,” York said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

About 3,500 tickets have sold so far for the Halloween concert, based on Ticketmaster seat availability Wednesday. The venue holds about 6,900 people at capacity.

In a letter York wrote on behalf of the association to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens last week, he noted, “Pedestrian activity can remain heavy from dusk at 6:45 p.m. to well past 10 p.m., and many are children walking with limited-visibility costumes. In addition, Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, making the likelihood of more trick-or-treaters, visiting families, and later celebrations higher than previous holidays.”

He wrote that though the venue is willing to add more police, he worries “families and children walking on their darkened, home streets in costumes with thousands of unfamiliar, out-of-area drivers and the known pedestrian hazards to visiting patrons remain elevated enough to ask the common-sense question: Just because we contractually can have a concert that evening, should we have a concert that evening?”

The civic association has a meeting planned Thursday with the city of Atlanta, which owns the amphitheater; Live Nation, which operates the venue; and the city of Sandy Springs, where part of the Chastain Park neighborhood is located.

“We’ll continue to coordinate with local officials,” a Live Nation spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re confident we can deliver a great experience for fans while being mindful of the surrounding neighborhood, and we look forward to welcoming everyone for a night of live music at Chastain Park.”

Live Nation has held 28 concerts this summer at Synovus, with seven more scheduled, including the Steve Lacy shows. The current memorandum of understanding between the city of Atlanta and Live Nation limits the concert promotion company to 41 shows a year, York said.

Usually concerts aren’t permitted after October, but York said the association is requesting an exception so Lacy can perform his second concert on Sunday, Nov. 1.

The neighborhood, he said, generally gets along with Live Nation. While neighbors have grappled with noise issues in past decades, that has not been the case in recent years.

“We haven’t had a noise complaint in more than four years,” York said. “The local Live Nation team has been great. Reading between the lines, this sounds like a decision was made outside of Atlanta and that they have no clue what happens in our neighborhood.”

The venue opened in 1944 as North Fulton Park Amphitheater, and changed names multiple times before Georgia-based Synovus Bank became the venue’s naming rights partner last year.