Thirteen hours ago, a video was posted on Vimeo titled “Save the Music at Bacchanal.” The sentiment’s a good one and I hope it works, but I fear it misses the issue. Musicians and others talk about how great the Bacchanal experience was, and fans talk about how great the music was, but Bacchanal didn’t get popped because it had shitty music. It didn’t get popped because its owners and fans were dicks to musicians. The problem is that it’s not zoned for live music, and the degree of art in the way it violated zoning regulations is irrelevant. I recognize that it’s much more soulful to make a video that talks warmly of a cool scene, but what has to happen is that Bacchanal and its supporters need to do the dull, unsexy work of applying for a zoning variance, or people need to put their energy into addressing New Orleans’ zoning policies so other cool scenes don’t meet the same fate.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/30891382[/vimeo]