Newport Series Stalls

The Newport Concert Series in Rhode Island is looking for a new home, and finding that its preferred location comes with a boatload of red tape.

Organizers hoped to move the series to Fort Adams State Park from its previous home at the Newport Yachting Center, which has been sold.

The fact it’s a state park means getting approval to use it takes time, according to WLNE-TV. Newport Waterfront Events, which is not associated with Newport folk and jazz festivals that are staged at Fort Adams, won city council approval to use the park venue in February.

Getting approval from the state was another matter. Park neighbors objected to the move, and the process ended April 28 – too late to book artists on Newport’s wish list for the summer series.

“We at that point could not hold on to those artists,” NWE’s Michele Maker Palmieri told WLNE. “We were hoping that maybe they were still holding dates but by that point they had moved on. It is the reality of concert booking.”

Newport Waterfront Events will still host concerts at Fort Adams – two are booked in connection with the Volvo Ocean Race – and Palmieri said she hopes success with those events will make it more likely the group will get approval for the series at Fort Adams next summer.