Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

The Newport City Council will meet in special session to discuss the application of longtime jazz and folk festival impresario George Wein to hold shows at Fort Adams this summer.

They will meet Thursday at 6:20 p.m., before their regularly scheduled workshop session, Mayor Jeanne-Anne Napolitano said Wednesday.

The council was to vote on whether to give Wein the necessary permits at its regular April 8 meeting, but a man claiming to be connected to Festival Network, the firm Wein sold his company to in 2007 and which held the 2007 and 2008 festivals, asked for a delay, claiming that Festival Network and Wein were negotiating over the rights to hold festivals at Fort Adams.

Originally, the matter was to be taken up at the next council meeting, set for Apr. 22, but Napolitano called the special meeting, saying Wein had waited long enough.

"This was a formality," Napolitano said. "This [delay] should not have happened."

Wein was kept on as an employee of Festival Network, but says he hasn't been paid since November and considers himself a free agent.

Festival Network's license was terminated by the state Department of Environmental Management, which operates Fort Adams, in February for late payments of the state's share of festival revenues.

Last month, DEM granted Wein's New Festival Productions a one-year license to hold the shows.

 Tags  Newport RI

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