Other festivals use contracts to keep blue words offstage

Organizers for outdoor music and cultural events similar to Norfolk's Bayou Boogaloo & Cajun Festival said last week it is common practice for contracts to bar performers from using profanity.

Festevents officials, who put on the Bayou Boogaloo at Town Point Park last weekend, said all future contracts will include an anti-profanity clause, after rapper Raymond "Boots" Riley was removed from the stage and cited for use of obscenities in public June 21.

"We do stress in all our materials, as well as in contracts, that this is a family concert," said Jeanette Walker, who is vice president of Johnson Inc., a Richmond-based company that owns a 12-year-old concert series called Fridays at Sunset. The yearly summer series is held at Kanawha

Plaza, a city-owned park.

Originally a jazz festival, Fridays at Sunset has morphed into a showcase of jazz, R&B, soul, reggae and hip-hop. Walker, who's been with the festival for seven years, said that even with a number of hip-hop acts, profanity has never been an issue because rules forbidding it have been in writing and discussed at length with the artists' handlers since the series began.

"Everyone we have booked has been very respectful, which I think speaks very highly of them and our event," she said. "They understand that we take this very seriously and we want our community to enjoy these performances."

Artists including The Roots and Mos Def - neither of which shy away from harsh language - have performed at the concerts without incident, and the series even welcomed rapper Nas on Friday.

As a precaution, organizers added a disclaimer to promotional materials for Nas' show that it was for adults, Walker said. But that did not give the performer permission to use profanity at the event.

"We have had many conversations," she said. "You do this long enough that you put things in writing to avoid those situations. You have to be on your toes."

Karen Scherberger, executive director of Festevents, said that until now, the need for a special contract clause hadn't been considered, because artists heeded oral warnings not to swear onstage.

Some downtown residents complained that they heard performers use profanity at Town Point Park during Afr'Am Fest over the Memorial Day weekend. Afr'Am Fest officials denied that obscene language was used.

Scherberger said the new contracts do not spell out a list of words that are prohibited, but "it is a situation of what is considered offensive language by city code," she said. Violators will forfeit their performance fee.

Mike Hilton, director of marketing for Beachevents, which puts on the American Music Festival on Labor Day weekend, said the group's contracts have long forbidden bad language. They talk with groups beforehand, but in light of Festevent's headaches, Hilton and his staff are having meetings to try to figure out what they'd do if an act violated the policy.

Walker, from Richmond, said an artist would have to say something "awfully drastic" for her to involve police.

In Oakland, Calif., where Riley lives, organizers for outdoor family events take precautions against obscenity.

Jim MacIlvaine, special events coordinator in Oakland's cultural arts and marketing department, said groups are warned in advance of the Oakland Art & Soul Festival, an outdoor event nearing its eighth year.

Oakland researches groups extensively, MacIlvaine said, and would likely sanction an offending act by consulting lawyers and possibly withholding payment. He could not think of a circumstance in which a performer would be criminally charged with using profanity.

"Someone would have to go off the deep end," he said.

Riley is the lead singer for the rap group The Coup. At the June 21 evening concert, he was introducing a band called Galactic when he used a variation of the F-word.

Scherberger, the city's vice mayor and other witnesses said Riley's expletive-ridden words were offensive, considering the family atmosphere of the Cajun festival. Scherberger said she does not regret getting the police involved to charge Riley with a misdemeanor.

"There have been those that have questioned the action I took, but I can honestly tell you the vast majority of calls and e-mails from individuals black and white appreciate the stance we've taken, and it's been very satisfying," she said.

Riley is to appear in Norfolk General District Court on July 23 and could face a fine of as much as $250.

Some Hampton Roads artists said they police themselves. Soprano, a local rapper who performed at this year's Afr'Am Festival, said he was warned at least three times to keep it clean - from his audition to the time he handed over his CD to go on stage - but warnings were unnecessary.

"Truthfully, whenever you see children around, you should keep it professional and not curse," said the rapper, who is from the Park Place section of Norfolk. He said he would not have needed a contract stipulating that he avoid R-rated material; faces in the crowd were enough.

Likewise, local rap artist Derek32zero said he was cautioned before his Afr'Am performance years ago. Most rap artists just know better, he said.

"Hip-hop artists already know the climate," he said. He has opened for groups including The Roots and Common. "You know the stigma attached, whether you are a socially conscious act or a gangster rapper. But you have people that are just going to try and challenge that, and an outdoor festival is just not the right place."

Derek32zero said Riley's excuse that he wasn't contractually warned beforehand "seems like he was just trying to justify what he did. You have to know your audience."

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com