There will be no public hearing Monday concerning "Thee First Annual Texas Zen Festival".
By Rob Fraser, Times-Review Writer
There will be no public hearing Monday concerning "Thee First Annual Texas Zen Festival" at Beaumont Ranch and depending on court action next week there may not be a festival on June 9.
Johnson County Commissioners Thursday afternoon voted to have County Attorney Bill Moore file a temporary injunction against the mass gathering because festival promoters did not apply for a mass gathering permit 45 days prior to the event. A mass gathering is 5,000 or more people outside the city limits of a municipality.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Troy Thompson made the motion and said the 45-day permit was necessary to investigate health and safety issues-including police and fire presence and medical care for the festival attendees and the community, and to hold a public hearing.
He said there was a time frame to put everything into motion and the festival promoters did not meet the requirements.
County Judge Roger Harmon said a district court judge will make a decision concerning a court hearing for the festival backers.
Commissioners voted in favor of the temporary injunction following a 50-minute emergency executive session on the matter.
Thee First Annual Texas Zen Festival came into public view last week when Grandview resident Kelli Bollman said her daughter called her from Fort Worth and said she saw a flier advertising a "rave" at Beaumont Ranch.
Bollman teamed up with Mary Thomas and they started calling people in the community concerning the event "and we decided we don't want this type of activity in Grandview," she said.
Tuesday night a town meeting was held in Grandview and many of the more than 200 residents in attendance voiced their concerns and objections to the event which was being called a rave.
Zen fest president and promoter Patrick Lewis tried to assure the audience the musical festival was not a rave.
He said this event has been labeled with "a naughty word, a four-letter word: 'rave.'"
"Rave by definition is a clandestine event taking place normally in a warehouse, without any permits, without any security. Usually thrown by drug dealers and run by drug dealers. I don't support raves and I don't attend raves," Lewis said. "And I have more of a reason to hate raves than most of you because it gives promoters like me a bad name. We like to have these events with the utmost security so we can keep doing them." Many questions dealt with drugs and alcohol and Lewis said all festival attendees would undergo searches. Many people in the crowd didn't believe a crowd that large, a minimum of 6,000 up to 20,000, could be searched in that time frame.
Other questions dealt with traffic control, parking on other people's property, and one woman said she was concerned about "having our name, the name of Grandview, attached to this."
Aside from Beaumont Ranch personnel there was no apparent support for the festival among the crowd.
Lewis did not return our phone call or e-mail for comment prior to press time.
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The Cleburne Times
Friday, June 1, 2001