Ah, you must be here for the unfortunate back story about all the venue changes.  Read on...

 

The Amphitheater at Sehmel Park has been RTH's home since 2018. 

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July 2023:

        I booked the Amphitheater a year in advance, as usual, and paid the fees in full.

 

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December 2023:

        PenMet informed me they were not going to honor our paid reservation because an art show                    came along and wanted the park for their own festival that day.  Shockingly, the reservation for our          festival was cancelled and was given to the Peninsula Art League instead. 

 

        PenMet offered Hales Pass Park plus the use of their stage as a substitution.  I accepted.

 

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February 2024:

        PenMet informed me they were not going to honor the Hales Pass agreement, either.  Peninsula              Art League decided that now they wanted our stage, too, and PenMet gave it to them. 

 

        PenMet further said that anything Peninsula Art League wants supersedes their commitments to              anyone else.  Without a stage, this was no longer an equivalent substitution.

 

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March 2024:

        I reached out to the director and co-director of Peninsula Art League, thinking perhaps they                        weren't aware that their festival was going forward at the expense of ours.  I asked if it was                        possible for their art show to proceed with just the Amphitheater stage without taking ours, too.              Neither one has ever replied.

 

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April 2024:

        I appealed to PenMet's executive director to honor their word regarding the use of their stage.                  She has promised to rent an outside stage, while Peninsula Art League keeps both of PenMet's                  stages.

 

        And then we realized the impossible parking situation at Hales Pass.  PenMet offered the use of                the CRC  (Community Recreation Center) instead, the majority of which is still under construction.            Somehow they thought we could hold RTH, with a stage, performers, vendors, and audience in the          lobby of their existing administrative building.  Uh...no, not at all possible.  Plenty of parking                      though.

 

        So....the lobby will be converted, at my expense, into a dressing room with adequate privacy.  RTH            will be in a section of the large parking lot, against a backdrop of lovely trees and facing away from          the construction site.

 

        By 2025 the CRC will be a lovely recreation compound with multiple buildings and an athletic field            available instead of a parking lot. 

 

        I don't know if we will ever have the Amphitheater again.  Peninsula Art League's event is annual              on the 3rd weekend of July, just like ours is.  According to minutes from the Board of                                    Commissioners' meetings it appears Peninsula Art League intends to permanently displace us.