Chicago's Indie Festivals Face Increased Challenges

In striking contrast to the preferential treatment accorded Lollapalooza, neighborhood, non-profit and community music and arts festivals are having a harder time than ever navigating an inscrutable permitting process and dealing with increased city fees under the Emanuel administration, according to a group of two dozen festival organizers who convened at the Cultural Center on Monday to offer their input for the Chicago Cultural Plan 2012.

"It's a Byzantine and quixotic process," said James "Bau" Graves, executive director of the Old Town School of Folk Music, which has canceled the Folk & Roots Festival it has run for the last 14 years and replaced it with a new, much smaller event this summer. "You don't know what you're going to get or when you're going to get it."

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