“Fear”

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — The Shinnecock Nation is speaking out after a series of warnings to residents from both Southampton city and village officials about “stalemate” and safety concerns stemming from its Palm Tree Music Festival Saturday.

The festival, co-founded by Kygo and his manager Myles Shear, which has been held at Francis S. Gabreski Airport for the past few years, did not have its license renewed by the FAA for 2024, resulting in a “change of venue last minute” in the territory of the Shinnecock Nation.

Both Southampton city and village officials have issued statements warning of gridlocked conditions, loud music and other concerns, asking residents to stay away from the areas during the heaviest expected traffic hours.

Meanwhile, the Shinnecock Nation is working hard to help organize the event.

“The setup for the Palm Tree Music Festival is well underway here in Shinnecock,” Lance Gumbs, tribal ambassador for the Shinnecock Nation, said on social media Thursday. “It was a last minute venue change from Westhampton Airport to our Shinnecock Territory. We look forward to hosting this event.”

The event starts at 2pm on Saturday, he said, with about 10,000 expected to attend.

Speaking to Patch about the concerns expressed by local officials, Gumbs said, “The fear is real with them,” noting that the same event happened in the past three years, “just 12 miles down the road.”

Southampton Police issued a traffic advisory on Friday, stating that on Saturday, June 22, from 1 p.m. to midnight, the Palm Tree Music Festival will be held at the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton.

“Significant traffic delays and congestion are expected along Montauk Highway and County Road 39 in the area of ​​the Stony Brook Southampton campus and the Village of Southampton,” police said. “Motorists are urged to avoid driving in these areas during this time.”

Temporary “No Parking” signs will be placed in neighborhoods around the festival grounds to help ease traffic congestion, police said.

Festival-goers are encouraged to take transportation services provided by the event or only go to the designated pick-up/drop-off points, police added.

Southampton Police will assist with traffic control at key intersections “and will do everything possible to alleviate anticipated traffic congestion,” authorities said.

Gumps, who handles race logistics and attended an event organizing meeting Thursday, also said he believes prices for event organizers have increased since the event was moved from Westhampton to Southampton.

“The blackmail is real, with every agency trying to get money out of this group as partners with the tribe,” he said. “It was so blatantly obvious, with all these so-called accusations that the same groups didn't accuse Westhampton.”

Gumps expressed outrage: “Once again, they show us that every time we try to do something to help our people, the local politicians and agencies try to put their foot down our throats! They keep saying these things nonsense about being good neighbors, but The only ones who have been good neighbors for the last 400 years are us.

The organizers of the Palm Tree Music Festival, Gumps said, “went out of their way to accommodate us and the surrounding area, even to the point of putting up some of our tribal elders in hotels who might not want to hear the loud music. music. Excessive killing by law enforcement and local agencies and extortion attempts to get more money from our partners is very concerning on many levels?

Gubbs said he thinks there are actually more routes to the new venue than there are in Westhampton.

“The Palm Tree folks have arranged with the MTA for a later patron train – something that was not done at Westhampton – 65 buses to take people to and from the stand, the college parking lot and the Southampton train station,” he said. he said. “Very similar to the US Open model when they used other parking lots to drive people to the same core area at Shinnecock Hills.”

Gumbs added, “All this unnecessary terror to discourage people from attending a great musical event that is going to be held in the Shinnecock area. I guess they forgot all the concerts with Jimmy Buffett and others that took place right on the very college field where we park cars, for all these years — or all the US Opens with huge traffic, what's clear to us at Shinnecock is that it's good for everyone else to have big events — everyone but Shinnecock Nation.

The Shinnecock Nation's Annual Labor Day Weekend Powwow, which lasts four days and brings 30,000 to 40,000 to the area, usually takes place at the same time as the Hamptons Classic, he added.

Earlier this week, Southampton City Code Compliance and Emergency Management Manager Ryan Murphy spoke with Patch about concerns.

“Anytime you try to put on an event that includes 10,000 people without allocating enough time to plan such an event, it's a safety concern,” he said. “While we recognize that the event is outside of our jurisdiction and hope that whatever occurs will result in a safe event, the city has serious concerns about the ability of this event to be carried out safely and efficiently on such a short notice. Add the lack of planning for some of the jurisdictional nuances of what happens on sovereign ground — and we're not looking at a recipe for success.”

Murphy said he hopes attendees “will respect the tribal land they'll be visiting, as well as the surrounding community. The land they'll be on is no longer an airport, and there are tribal people who live around the event site on the reservation as well, I hope to respect the residential areas through which they pass coming and going from the event”.

To residents, Murphy said to expect “congested conditions in and around the areas from late afternoon to late evening. I think it's safe to assume the worst traffic conditions will be between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. .again from about 10pm to 12am, peak arrival and departure times, I would avoid travel to the area at all costs.'

The Elks Club also has its own carnival on County Road 39, he said, with fireworks at 9:30 p.m. and the event ends at 11 p.m.

For those with noise complaints, Murphy asked residents to submit them online, through the city's SOS system, “as opposed to overwhelming the police with complaints. That will record your complaint and send it directly to enforcement code in the field,” he said. “Police, fire, EMS, hospital and all other public safety entities will take steps and establish procedures to try to mitigate the impact of this incident on the surrounding areas as best as possible — and maintain continuity of all emergency response services.”

The city's concerns were expressed in addition to those raised by Southampton Village officials.

On Friday, Murphy spoke to Pats about Gumps' belief that “fear mongering” was taking place.

“The same concerns raised now were addressed in the planning efforts for the airport,” Murphy said. “Each of the concerns that were raised were different elements that were designed at the airport and corresponded to part of their design process over the years. That design process took place over periods of months and also improved every year.”

He added: “Lessons learned from one year to the next were taken into account and programming adjusted along the way. The planning process for this shift in locations and event was given approximately 10 to 15 days total time to consider all the elements that had been recorded in the last three years at the previous site.

Additional planning and concerns also arise when you move the event from an open airport field to a residential community and when you go from a county airport property to a sovereign nation, Murphy said.

“Changes in jurisdiction and community characteristics should also be considered when creating the brand new plan for the site. The size of the event area also changed from one location to another. These are all concerns and factors that should be given enough time to plan and consider, 10 to 15 days is not enough time to plan an event of this scale.

For the Annual Pow Wow, Murphy said, the event is annual and recurring. “It's a Reservation event, done by them and for their benefit. It's not a private event put on by a private organizer renting space from the Reservation,” he said. “Comparing the two is apples and oranges. The Pow Wow is a slow coming and going of people, not a quick influx and leaving of 10,000 people. Even if the Pow Wow sees more people during the event, that spreads out. The characteristics of participants in the Pow Wow is also a great, more family, cultural experience, not an electric dance concert years of perfecting their processes and procedures to manage this event successfully.”

As for the extortion or racketeering charges, Murphy said from the city's perspective, “any charges assessed for the incident are the same or less than what would be charged for the exact same specific incident if it happened anywhere else. ». in the city of Southampton.

“There are no special or unusual charges due to the increase in staff to mitigate the event's impact on the surrounding community,” Murphy said. “Many/Most special events in town have fees associated with the events. There is nothing strange about this event.”