Reporting.

So Sean is going to fill in for us today as president.

I don't know if all of you heard Rob Klein, who was the president has moved.

He moved to Connecticut.

Yep.

So he is out of the area.

Yep.

Went back to the uh went back to his homestamping grounds, I guess.

He is completed.

So we um we don't have anyone here for open comment period.

Um Abital, do you have any short report you'd like to anything, any words you'd like to share?

Words of wisdom.

Yes.

Uh one moment here.

Let me just pull up my um I just wanted to give a brief brief overview of how the season went.

Um we just I don't actually have the I do have the final numbers for sound school, but I may need to ping Mary for those.

Um so for the summer we reached getting the right thing.

Uh over 20,000 residents and visitors.

So 22,530, I think was our final count for the summer.

Um 2350 kids, uh, children and students over the summer.

Okay, and I believe 3,000 for sound school, which just concluded lap set two weeks ago.

Time is flowing.

Um so 31 events produced and 28 music ensembles presented.

Um, 70,000 in sponsorships received.

So our total audience um for the summer was up nine percent.

So that's across um Passport, Riverside, and Forward.

And kind of digging into that a little bit, uh, the average attendance per event for Riverside was up 12% from 2024.

And for Forward, it was up 28%, which is really significant.

Um, so we last year for 24, I believe the average attendance was around 500 per concert averaged out, and it was closer to 700 for this summer.

Uh we had a new attendance record.

So happy to say that for the second year in a row at Forward, our our forward attendance record um for this year's was for overall was 1,069 attendees for the Clay Fulton show at uh Cascade.

So it was raining.

Yeah, that was the three days.

It was raining and it was still in attendance records.

That one's really fun.

I know a bunch of you came.

Um people were dancing, they stayed in the rain.

I mean, some people left, of course, but uh parking lot was full, people kept coming and coming and coming.

Um I actually personally did not hear a lot of complaints about the weather or the parking, which was really um, I wasn't quite expecting that.

Um, I mean, obviously it was raining and the parking was a thing, but you know, those are and parking is something that this year we're really trying to address, um, working a lot with transit and other folks to see what we might be able to do or community partners to see if we can figure out maybe some nearby uh parking surface lot options with maybe churches or businesses that might not be open during those hours and might be willing to kind of sponsor um some space.

So definitely what we're seeing is that there is appetite for these events.

The community is really making it their own.

Um, and more many more people can fit in the park.

Really the constraint is parking um and folks comfortably getting to and from the events, and we we want to make sure that that is a uh a pleasant as pleasant an experience as possible.

So that's something we're really intentionally focusing on for 26.

Um, but yeah, so overall uh sound school this year we had two sound school residencies, and that is due to us changing the timing of the series.

So historically it's been a spring, um, very early spring series, late winter, early spring, kind of that February, March.

Um so we had that residency this year.

That was Tyco Arts Midwest.

They were wonderful, sold-out show at the chateau, received really well by the community, um, kids in schools and coming to that public concert.

So we also this year um switched to a fall residency, which that was the one that happened just two weeks ago.

And that was um Tubergen band.

So that was uh Mongolian, traditional Mongolian music, kind of a fusion with um modern elements.

They were amazing as well.

Um that was a very well-attended show at the chateau also.

So our second year using that venue.

Um yeah, it was super fun.

We all went to a bunch of the the residencies.

year um switched to a fall residency which that was the one that happened just two weeks ago and that was um tubergen band so that was uh Mongolian traditional Mongolian music kind of a fusion with um modern elements they were amazing as well um that was a very well attended show at the chateau also so our second year using that venue um yeah it was super fun we all went to a bunch of the the residencies um Paul is the he is the sound school person so he wants to say a few words in a moment but um that went really well from my perspective I feel like we're really kind of dialing things in and connecting well with the schools um so that that is going to be our new normal from here on out as we'll be doing this fall residency that seems to be easier for schools and and for us um and we'll circle back don't forget um passport sessions also went really well so that was that's a partnership with Thursdays downtown and uh SAC school age child care the summer programs so like I said we reached um you know hundreds of kids through that and members of the community so that was great we're also partnering uh planning to partner with RDA again for 2026 we're setting updates for them um so those will be posted on the website when they're confirmed uh and then as a uh kind of a highlight here so we are transitioning our fourth of July program so we did have uh fourth fest this year uh next year for 2026 we will not be doing the full fourth fest we are instead going to be supporting the fireworks for the city so that will be continuing but the concert portion kind of the fest portion of fourth fest is being sunset uh we have plans to partner with um a local media organization radio station of some sort to be a broadcast partner essentially to do some kind of uh um basically like a sound track to the fireworks so whatever shape that takes ideally maybe a mayor's message some kind of patriotic music something that's um and whatever shape that takes still will depend on the partner um but that will be the music portion and people can tune in wherever they are and witness the fireworks people can come to soldiers field which is it'll still be the same location as it has been in the past with fireworks but then folks who are um viewing around the city will be able to tune into that broadcast and uh and get the musical experience and and have a have a great connection that way so no food stuff like none of that happening no um so there will not be an actual on-site event there will probably be um some things like portables um but and of course like P and Fire and EMS and everyone will still be on site to kind of support the public safety aspect and the fireworks but there will not be like a city presence with um an event so this also does open up the possibility that other community partners could decide that they want to do something on those grounds and that is absolutely an option that would be something through like the special permit process for the city uh the community band will be doing a concert at Cascade sometime on the 4th of July so it's not um and we'll be kind of you know promoting that as a as a thing um but not producing that um so and that'll probably be earlier in the day so we may start to see kind of partners and folks around the city choosing to do elements of us of a public celebration which would be really neat um I've heard some interesting folks kind of pursuing that special permit process to do different types of activities and then you know leading up to the fireworks.

So yeah as we hear more about that we'll obviously be messaging that to you and the public it was just wasn't a good fit for that public music to do it or yeah so it was um so historically that was something that the department inherited um and it really is more of a city celebration rather than a music focused celebration and because our programmatic activity is so dense in the summer it's really challenging to support and grow that event um to be something like a city celebration and it's also really challenging for other departments because it's it's held on a holiday right and we're city so everyone obviously has that day off and it becomes a challenge with getting staff or people even in town you know it's not just overtime and all that um so hopefully this will be kind of a different shape where maybe community partners will be able to take some of this on but the there will be a music element and there will be the fireworks so that continuity will continue um that was a little redundant but you know what I mean.