Welcome to Tent City
Festival moves into
Miami Beach without paying its dues
By Ben Torter
The
tents popping up on the sand along
Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue aren’t from a band of Saharan
nomads moving in for the rest of winter. They mark the return of
the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, a
star-studded culinary event that runs from Feb. 21-24.
Judging by the long list of celebrity chefs on the bill, the
seventh annual festival appears to be a pretty big deal. Emeril
Lagasse, Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Padma Lakshmi, Rachael Ray,
Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Nobu Matsuhisa and Anthony Bourdain,
among others, will be dropping into town to show how it’s done
in the kitchen.
But the spectacle is taking up an awful lot of space on the
beach.
Several residents showed up at the Miami Beach City Commission
meeting Feb. 13 to ask why the tent city takes an entire month
to build and why the multimillion-dollar operation doesn’t pay a
penny in impact or application fees.
“The tourists I’ve talked to can’t believe that the city would
allow our biggest asset, the beach, to be appropriated for an
entire month during high season,”
Miami Beach
resident Nina Weber Worth said.
“If there are some inconveniences, they have to be weighed
against the benefits,” said David Kelsey, president of the South
Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association.
Commissioners weren’t sure of the exact nature of the
relationship between the festival and city, so they instructed
City Manager Jorge Gonzalez to provide them detailed information
in a letter to the commission. The letter was made public
Wednesday afternoon.
The festival enjoys nonprofit status through
Florida International University.
“Over the course of the first six years of the event,
approximately $4 million was raised for FIU’s
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management,” according to
Gonzalez’s memo. “Last year, $1.5 million went to support these
programs. This year’s event has garnered a 21 percent increase
in sponsorship, with $1.8 million earmarked for FIU.”
FIU’s hospitality programs have steadily grown in the last few
years. In 2006, the university unveiled the first
U.S. school of hospitality and tourism in
Tianjin,
China.
Because
Miami Beach
sponsors the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the city logo is
broadcast in advertisements around the world. Under this year’s
deal, the city is providing the festival with lots of freebies —
waived application and permit fees, vehicle beach access fees,
square footage fees, police and fire administration fees, banner
fees and Lummus Park user fees that total $87,000.
Weber Worth and activist Jo Manning pointed out that other
popular events such as Art Basel don’t take nearly as long to
set up and take down. They suggested moving the festival to
another location, such as
23rd Street and Collins Avenue, where there is more parking and
less tourist traffic.
Commissioners seemed receptive to complaints and promised to
look into alternatives that include charging impact fees.
“Maybe it’s just time to look at what the impacts of the growth
have been and react accordingly,” Commissioner Saul Gross said.
Meanwhile, expect to dole out some serious cash if you want to
rub shoulders with your favorite chefs. That is, if you can get
a ticket, since all of the big events are sold out. (A weekend
pass, which isn’t all-inclusive, sold for $1,235 when they were
still available.) If not, just stand downwind and enjoy the
bouquet of aromas blowing out of the exclusive tents.
