Crater debate roils
over concert plans

Critics maintain the proposed event
goes against the state plan
for Diamond Head

Members of Diamond Head Crater's advisory board are angry about a plan to hold a concert in the landmark as early as next year, saying the event would go against the state monument's master plan and invite other large-scale gatherings.

"Once they've opened the gate to these type of activities," said Diamond Head Citizens' Advisory Committee member Clark Hatch, "it sets a real dangerous precedent."

The Diamond Head concert would be the first inside the park since the Crater Festivals of the 1970s, which ended after community members complained about noise, drug use and heavy traffic associated with the events.

But capacity for the proposed event would max out at 7,500, nowhere near the more than 20,000 admitted into Crater Festivals, according to an organizer. Tickets would be sold in advance, and attendees would be shuttled in from off-site parking lots.

"This is not a Crater Festival," said Ron Gibson, the proposed concert's executive producer. "I'm not going to put any pressure on the community or the officials or anyone. I want people to know that this is good thing."

Gibson, longtime California Music Awards executive producer, said the concert would be part of a statewide music conference and feature musicians and "superstars" from around the world.

If all goes well, Gibson said, the "Hawaii International Musical Conference" will have a reputation within a couple of years equal to that of the Cannes Film Festival, complete with a high-profile following and a televised component.

Other events tied to the conference are planned for the Hawai'i Convention Center, Maui Arts & Cultural Center and other venues, he said.

"The crater's one-seventh of the energy and everything that's going into this thing," Gibson said. "We're using the magic and the mystique of Diamond Head for that worldwide publicity."

The state Land Board would have to grant a permit for Gibson to hold the event in the crater, said state Department of Land and Natural Resources Chairman Peter Young. A date for the board meeting has not been set because Gibson has not yet filed any paperwork.

To learn more Organizers of a proposed concert in Diamond Head Crater will present their plans to the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board at 7 p.m. Thursday at Wesley United Methodist Church, 1350 Hunakai St.

Young has thrown his support behind Gibson, and says the concert is a unique opportunity for the state park to expand beyond being just a daytime tourist attraction.

"In the master plan for Diamond Head, this type of event is permitted," Young said. "It's not creating a new thing. It's in part bringing back some stuff that was happening in the past."

But members of the Diamond Head advisory board point to a section in the crater's master plan that prohibits "large gatherings" or "any commercial use," and say the concert would go against the spirit of what a state monument should be used for and represent.

"Would they do this to Haleakala?" said Michelle Matson, an advisory committee member. "If the state concedes to the pressure of a commercial group such as this, then there would be other requests."

Karen Ah Mai, chairwoman of the Diamond Head/Kapahulu/St. Louis Heights Neighborhood Board, said she is intrigued by the idea of holding a concert in Diamond Head.

"I actually think it would be an economic benefit for the state," she said, adding that attendance would be only twice the 3,500 people who hike the trail on a heavy day.

But she also said there are a lot of questions, and it is too early for many of them to be answered.

Gibson has already been before Ah Mai's board twice, and plans to address the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board Thursday.