Denied Again: Summer Of Love Concert In Golden Gate Park Loses Permit Battle

Denied Again: Summer Of Love Concert In Golden Gate Park Loses Permit BattlePhoto: Adán Sánchez de Pedro/Flickr
Alisa Scerrato
Published on June 05, 2017

There's no love for Boots Hughston, Summer of Love concert promoter. Late last week, his second permit application for the Summer of Love Concert in Golden Gate Park was rejected.

On Friday afternoon, Hughston received an email from Dana Ketcham, director of permits and property management for the SF Recreation and Park. The email included a letter from Diane Rea, Rec and Park's permits and reservations manager, on why the department was denying him a permit the second time.   

Hoodline obtained the letter after Rec and Park sent us a copy. One of the breaking points for the department was when Hughston's website stated on May 30th that the permit for the August 27th had been granted. At the time, the application was still under review.

An email from MonaLisa Wallace, a liaison for the Summer of Love concert organizers, stated that the website had been updated by a volunteer and corrected "minutes" after the discovery. 

However, this explanation was not satisfactory to Rec and Park. "The concept that 'volunteers' were contacting the press and updating the website suggests that there are no controls in place," wrote Ketcham in an email to Hughston and Wallace. 

Boots Hughston at the March for Science on Earth Day, San Francisco. | Photo: Boots Hughston/Facebook

Rec and Park also had significant concerns on projected crowd size and safety. On May 30th, and in the more recent permit application, Hughston indicated that he had applied for an event for 15,000 attendees in Sharon Meadow.

"Your application is incomplete and appears to contain further misrepresentations about the size of the crowds," Rea wrote, "as your email to us mentions a crowd of 25,000 and your website suggests that you are producing brochures for 50,000." 

The letter also stated that Hughston had been soliciting donations on his website, and despite his claims that he didn't reach out to the media, Rec and Park had confirmed that he had reached out to SF Travel, a non-profit that provides resources for visitors and conventions. 

Per the string of emails Hoodline received from Hughston, dating back to May 1st, both parties had finally come to an agreement on May 26th for the concert to be held on August 27th, pending a permit approval.

After some back and forth throughout the month, Ketcham contacted Hughston on May 30th, expressing concerns about his recently submitted site map. 

Original site map of Hughston's proposed concert at Sharon Meadows. | Courtesy of Connie Chan of Rec and Park.

On June 1st, Hughston sent Ketchum an email attaching a new site map, as well as explanations for projected guest attendance numbers, traffic plans, security plans, and additional items, per the department's request.

He also informed them that he had modified the Summer of Love website and Facebook page in order to comply with their demands.

However, despite the new application materials, which were submitted as Rec and Park was preparing its denial, the department upheld its decision to deny the Summer of Love concert an event permit after it reviewed the new materials.  

Revised site map of Hughston's proposed concert at Sharon Meadows. | Photo: Courtesy Of Boots Hughston

When we spoke to Hughston on Saturday morning, he said Ketcham and Dana Rea are “out of line." He denied several of their claims, including the claim that his volunteers had reached out to the media. He told Hoodline that no such thing occurred. 

"We the Council of Light demand the city of San Francisco," he said in a press release on Saturday, "restrain and discipline Dana Ketcham and Diane Rea who are the permits officers involved. We have met all standards of compliance and have a long history of peaceful and well run organized events. These permit officers have directly and intentionally denied our permit on onerous and unfounded grounds."

Hughston told us that he has not giving up on commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, and he is looking in other areas in the Bay Area, such as around the East Bay, to hold the concert.