Fashion Week Leaving Lincoln Center

[abatt]

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit regarding the use of Damrosch Park by the Fashion Week participants, Fashion Week will leave Lincoln Center. Bye Bye. Damrosch Park will finally be returned to the public for public use.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/fashion-week-to-leave-lincoln-center/?ref=arts

[Helene]

If I'm following this correctly, the City contracted with Lincoln Center to control use of Damrosch Park and collect rental fees, primarily from Fashion Week and Big Apple Circus, which legally belongsto the City and which the City cannot relinquish/assign. As a result, the park will be mainly accessible to the public again, with a limited number of private events whose fees will go to the City. LC will have to find $32m a year from other sources.

Was this agreement created to help the big LC upgrade?

[DanielBenton]

I'll be sorry not to see the young models trolling around the fountain, hooking up with equally young photographers, then exchanging emails on their I-pads.

[Jayne]

fashion is a big industry in NYC, giving up the park for a week doesn't seem to be the end of the world. I'm surprised that this became such a "thing".

[Helene]

They had a deal. They knew the logistics, which is a lot easier than setting up in a new place, and their new venue isn't going to be ready until 2018. It's not trivial to get a new space, but they will be allowed to use it this winter.

[abatt]

I've read articles in the paper saying that a lot of designers were unhappy with the Lincoln Center set up anyway, and they were already opting out of going to Lincoln Center even before this settlement. Thus, a number of prominent designers have already left the Lincoln Center venue and hold their own shows in alternate locations. (Most powerful among them is Diane Von Furstenberg, who has been very critical of the Lincoln Center set up .)

[Helene]

They obviously were planning to stay despite the difficulties, until the lawsuit. Unless they had a contract with LC from which they couldn't pull out without the judges' ruling, they thought the trade-offs, despite the complaints and defections, were worth it.

Nonetheless, it is a very different animal to put on an event in a familiar venue than to re-create it in a new one.

[sandik]

I don't follow the ins and outs of Fashion Week -- how was the Lincoln Center event different than previous locations (all I remember is Bryant Park, which probably dates me pretty thoroughly)