NORFOLK, VA — Performers getting onstage during any of the Town Point Park Festevents concerts had better leave their bad language at the stage door if they want to get paid and avoid trouble with the law. Rap, country, rock, folk; it doesn’t matter. Saying a bad word will put them in violation of the Festevents no-profanity contract clause they may or may not realize that they signed.Although the clause hasn’t gone into effect yet, the annual Bayou Boogaloo and Cajun Festival was interrupted briefly while rap performer Raymond “Boots” Riley was instructed to get off of the stage. Once he had done so, the local police presented him with a misdemeanor citation for using obscenity in pubic.
Karen Scherberger, whose Festevents group sponsors nearly all of the downtown performances, says she’s been telling agents for years that obscenity would not be tolerated at Town Point Park. Now, after having brought the police in to back her up, she plans to make it official, by amending all contracts with bands and individual performers to clearly spell out the no-profanity rule.
“There’s a big difference between what’s acceptable at a public park and a frat party,” Mike Jones, who helps Scherberger research and book bands points out.
In the case of guest musician Riley, Scherberger and Jones had no reason to expect trouble from Galactic, the New Orleans funk band that blends hip-hop and jazz he was working with. But Riley was an unknown, and caused what Scherberger described to The Virginian-Pilot as “a mass exodus” when he used a derivation of the word “fuck” during his band member introduction.
“It was not a good scene,” she insists of the 4,000 person crowd. “It was probably the worst night I’ve had in 26 years.”
Somehow during all the mayhem, Scherberger had the calm head needed to contact the police and ask them to cite Riley for his smutty mouth. Although a Norfolk Police Department representative did not know when Oakland, CA native Riley is scheduled for his day in court, Scherberger says that he was well-behaved back stage during his first contact moment with the law.
Riley, who has wanted to be a revolutionary since the age of 15, is the lead singer for the rap group Coup and has recorded such albums as Kill My Landlord, and Genocide and Juice.
The desire for a purer town concert soundtrack follows a Memorial Day weekend Afr’Am Fest which earned complaints about profane language. According to The Virginian-Pilot, city officials stand behind Scherberger’s decision to have Riley ticketed.
“We simply cannot tolerate that sort of obscene language in a park by people we pay to perform,” Mayor Paul Fraim explains.
Although one citizen has emailed the city to complain about what they believe to be a violation of Riley’s First Amendment rights, Fraim disagrees.
“If you’re paying somebody to perform, I don’t think you have a First Amendment issue,” he opines.
In spite of complaints concerning the Memorial Day show, Scherberger says the last time she remembers a performer popping off with unacceptable language was 15 years ago, when singer giving a Friday afternoon concert began shouting at the small crowd assembled to hear him. The police were not called in that case, she recalls, but “we took the sound down” instead.
Todd Owens, who fronts Norfolk rock band Trauma Dolls, wonders why the same couldn’t have been done with Riley. “Maybe they just could have pulled the plug on the band,” he suggests.
But it’s important to Sherberger that the city makes a point about how much it values and protects its children.
“Some argue that children shouldn’t be out that time of night, but they are out. We want families to feel safe downtown at any time of night.”
