How the Art Museum area became the designated site for numerous “circus atmosphere” events is one of the great mysteries of Philadelphia. What a terrible misuse of Philadelphia’s artistic and cultural centerpiece!

 The Art Museum area stands on its own merits.  Its museums and green environment are world class.  There is no “rhyme or reason” to holding rock concerts and other such similar disruptive activities in the Art Museum’s area of beauty” and quiet gracefulness. These artificial activities usurp the aesthetic or intellectual experience for many thousands of local and world visitors.  Regularly blaspheming the area with blasting noise, closed off sections of the Parkway, fences around sculptures, portable toilets, and massive traffic congestion create surreal happenings that simply do not belong in Philadelphia’s Art Museum area.  

City officials who grant permits seem to be clueless and/or apathetic about the Art Museum area.  Philadelphia’s centerpiece of art and science should not be the location for circuses. The area is surrounded by a thriving neighborhood. And so it is a disservice to thousands of Philadelphia tax paying citizens living on or near the Parkway when amplified music shakes windows, parking is disrupted and the beautiful green areas are closed off and covered with temporary structures..

 The worst offender is the absurd “Made in America” event which invades area homes and apartments for days with endless deafening percussion and accompanying discordant music. And now we have the tasteless and money-hungry NFL dictating to city officials and getting “what they want” for a contrived event  rather than asking the city “what venue is available.”  Six weeks of  area chaos for a three day event…You must be kidding.

These events demean the Art Museum area and are a terrible and unfair intrusion on visitors, those who reside there, and those who must commute through a bizarre maze of traffic congestion.

“Amusement part events” are a desecration of Philadelphia’s Art Museum area.  And rock concerts and other “blasting noise events” more appropriately belong in one of the stadiums or on the waterfront.

 All of this is a sad commentary on city government abusing a residential and cultural area and fostering an insane practice running rampant in an inappropriate area,

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