Gary Pepper expects some things to get broken when the Forecastle Festival comes to Waterfront Park this summer.
"It's a huge event," said Pepper, director of facilities for the Waterfront Development Corporation. "Stuff gets tore up, you have to anticipate it."
The Waterfront Park staff will continue anticipating the wear and tear for at least a few more years.
Forecastle Festival, which last year brought nearly 60,000 people to downtown Louisville, will remain at Waterfront Park through 2019, festival, city and park officials announced on Monday. The festival, officials said, has had a $14 million economic impact annually for the city.
(The lineup for the 2015 festival will be released Tuesday.)
Pepper cares about damage to the park because it is up to him and his eight person crew to fix it. He said Forecastle will turn the the grass into paths of dirt and mud as thousands of patrons frolic the weekend away. But it's not the grass he is worried about, really.
"It always comes back," he said.
What concerns Pepper is "infrastructure damage," he said—things like light poles, park furniture and limestone walls.
He does what he can to prevent the damage. His crew will remove some poles and furniture that's directly in harm's way.
"You get a lot of guys mobilizing in and out in a short period of time in a condensed area, they will run into stuff," he said.
Most of the damage is an easy fix, he said. But when the limestone wall that runs along the water's edge near the great lawn gets nicked, it's not such an easy fix, he added.
The limestone wall is made up of hand carved panels each paid for by a specific donor, he said.
"When those pieces get backed into, it's a big deal," he said.
Such a big deal, in fact, he said a custom stone mason is called down from Indianapolis and an engraver is summoned for the repair, which can take months, he said.
But the cost of the damages are covered by a $15,000 damage deposit that is paid in cash by Forecastle Festival organizers. The Waterfront Development Corporation isn't "on the hook" for any of it, Pepper said.
In fact, the Waterfront Development Corporation has positioned itself for fiscal benefit if festival organizers don't clean up the space.
Pepper said if trash remains on the grounds once the event concludes, the Waterfront Development Corporation will charge organizers $150 per worker for each hour to pick it up.
In the past, Forecastle organizers have done a good job in caring for Waterfront Park during the festival, Pepper said.
For him, five more years of Forecastle means five more years of enjoying a few cold beers at the festival and occasionally stepping away from the music to his air-conditioned office, which sits adjacent to Joe's Crab Shack, to look out over his domain.
From there he can nearly see the whole park.
He can see the crowds, he can see the grass and he can see when someone is about to back into the limestone wall.
