A multi-day festival originally pitched for Memorial Day weekend at Waukegan’s Municipal Beach has been pushed back to Independence Day weekend, city officials said.
The Waukegan City Council agreed Monday to move the proposed Vet Fest back five weeks from late May to June 30 through July 3, Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley said.
As part of the change, festival organizers have agreed to contribute $50,000 to the city to help pay for fireworks, according to Motley, who has previously stressed the event will be held at no cost to the city.
The festival organizers have remained mum about the line-up. It has now been more than a month since festival attorney Randy Robinson said organizers were “extremely close to an announcement.”
On Monday, Motley said all of the acts have signed contracts, but when to announce the lineup is up to the sponsor.
The fest will include three stages at the beach, one on the west end, another at the beach itself and another on the south parking lot by the former manufacturing building on East Sea Horse Drive.
The mayor told the council in January that headliners could include Ted Nugent, Florida Georgia Line and Kid Rock, but later clarified no acts had been signed at that point. Robinson said in February that Nugent was not being sought for the festival.
The City Council later agreed to a confidentiality agreement with the organizers.
The festival was pitched to the city as a “three- to four-day music festival featuring national acts honoring veterans and active duty military (members), who will have free admission,” according to the application filed by event organizer MG Vet Fest LLC.
The promoter, who estimates the festival will draw 75,000 people per day, requested permission to hold the Municipal Beach event from 6 a.m. May 25 to 11 p.m. May 31.The mayor has called the 75,000 estimate “unrealistic.”
The city drew about 30,000 visitors for its Independence Day fireworks display last year, Motley said.
Organizers have asked the city to close Sea Horse Drive, which loops to the beach from the Waukegan Yacht Club area, for the duration of the festival as well as for permission to sell food, beer, spirits and merchandise from vendors. That application is still pending.
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