PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- City officials met with residents of the Munjoy Hill neighborhood Tuesday to discuss the future of concerts on the Eastern Promenade.
It's been just over a month since Mumford and Sons chose the scenic park for the first stop on its Gentlemen of the Road Tour That meant more than fifteen thousand people converging on the city and more specifically the Munjoy Hill neighborhood.
The majority of the comments at Tuesday night's neighborhood meeting were constructive, with neighbors offering suggestions on how they would like the city to handle any future concerts on the Prom. Some residents would prefer that the city not rent the park out for paid events, but if it's going to happen, they want the concert promoters to keep the neighborhood in mind.
"You're talking about a neighborhood and people's lives," Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization President Andrea Myhaver said. "And so to impact their lives over the course of multiple days, the benefit really does need to be there, and I think the benefit to the city is important, the economic impact, but also to the neighborhood."
The City of Portland did not spend any money on the Gentlemen of the Road Tour. It was reimbursed for nearly sixty thousand dollars in services like police and public works.
Portland did make money from the tour. The city was paid a base fee for use of the park, and collected a percentage of merchandise and food sales. That total came out to a little more than twenty-nine thousand dollars.
The city also negotiated to get six new big belly trash cans, which are worth just over twenty-four thousand dollars.
NEWS CENTER