The Boston College Eagle Rock Festival turned to Harvard yesterday in a last ditch effort to find an acceptable site for the event, and finding none, went the way of Powder Ridge. It's been cancelled.
L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president of Marvard, yesterday informed B. C. President Father Seavey Joyce that Harvard would not loan out its stadium for another rock concert this year, much as the University sympathized with B. C.'s plight.
Yesterday Wiggins met with Father Joyce and gave him the bad news. Officially any use of the stadium must be approved by the Harvard Corporation. Unofficially the University is hesitant to hold more rock concerts in the stadium after receiving numerous complain's stemming from distubances following the Summerthing rock concerts.
Harvard's refusal dashed the last hopes for the Eagle Rock festival, which has been an on-again-off-again affair over the last week.
The all-day festival was originally scheduled for the Boston College stadium in Chestnut Hill subject to the approval of the city.
After the Chestnut Hill Association, a neighborhood group representing 350 families, objected to the plan on the grounds that the event was not well enough supervised, Boston Mayor Kevin White withdrew permission Wednesday. White is currently a gubernatorial candidate in the September Democratic primary.
"We do not have sufficient means to guarantee a festival without a highrisk of incidents." White said. Barney Frank, White's executive assistant, added that police officials from Boston, Newton and Brookline had expressed "very strong feelings against the festival because of the question of protection."
"The city will offer B. C. a chance to recoup its losses with free use of the John B. Hynes auditorium for a rock event later in the year, probably in October or November when things have cooled down." Frank said.
The festival was the first in a series of planned fund-raising events to build an entertainment center on the B. C. campus.
According to a B. C. news release today, "there is also a real possibility that Paul McCartney will do a benefit for the center in the spring, in which case the center will bear his name."
Should B. C. follow through on the promise. Boston College will be the first university in the world to have a Paul McCartney Entertainment Center.
By yesterday. over 10,000 tickets for the festival had already been sold and university officials were expecting 30,000 in attendance. Pre-sold tickets will be refunded by mail, a spokesman for the festival said.
Among those who were to have appeared are Led Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers, the Stooges, the MC5, Junior Wells, and Buddy Guy.
Should B. C. change its mind and decide to name the new center The Stooges Entertainment Center, that too would be a world's first.
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