Video

Hear the Camarillo Community Band prepare for their July concert series.
Watch now »

The Camarillo Community Band performed July 3 at Constitution Park in Camarillo, but nobody came — at least that's what it felt like to the all-volunteer band.

When band members arrived to set up on the stage, they found the entire grassy area of the park covered with empty beach chairs.

The park was so full of empty chairs — holding spots for a concert scheduled for later in the week — that the audience for the Community Band had to sit at the back of the park.

"But since we're not amplified in any way," said Karen Gatchel, a band member for 14 years, "it made us rather hard to hear."

The incident spurred a number of phone calls and complaints to city officials.

Fans of the Community Band were angry that the band's permit to perform was seemingly squashed by patrons of the Arts Council Concert Series, which took place July 5.

The band Super Diamond was expected to draw a larger-than-usual crowd, so by Thursday evening, as allowed by permit from the city, fans began setting up chairs so they could claim their spot for the Saturday show.

"It was pretty disheartening," said Gatchel. "Our audience was relegated to the back of the park, and they couldn't hear us very well."

Audience members were told that night to move up front to the concrete apron, where no chairs were set up, but very few did.

Gatchel said that while the Community Band does not get "huge crowds," the size of the audience has been growing each week.

"We put in a permit every year, and we've given concerts in July for 20 years," said Gatchel. "But when you're confronted with an entire park full of empty chairs, the band was hurt very deeply."

Three years ago, the city began to issue a permit to the Arts Council for Thursdays after 5 p.m. The purpose of the permit was to prohibit patrons from setting up their chairs a week early, which had been happening for the more popular concerts in the Arts Council series.

Camarillo City Manager Jerry Bankston said the July 3 incident was most likely a one-time event.

"The Arts Council operates under a special events permit, and this is the third year we've allowed them to set up chairs on Thursday evening," Bankston said. "We just had one concert that exceeded expectations.

"We will work to make sure that it will not happen again, and we'll certainly review the permit process to make sure next year we don't have a conflict," Bankston said.

Mayor Charlotte Craven echoed the sentiment.

"I think what we want is for both groups to be able to perform, and we'll revisit this during the permit process for next year," Craven said. "At this point, with the concert season nearly over, there's very little the city can do to act immediately."

Gatchel, however, is not satisfied with the city's response.

"The city knew that there might be conflict by handing out permits to two groups allowing one to set up on a night the park's in use," Gatchel said. She said the band would like to reach a compromise.

"We want to reach an agreement where everyone is accommodated," she added.

Arts Council President Jan McDonald, who is also a Camarillo City Council member, said, "We didn't want to cause problems for another group. We operated within the purview of our permit given to us by the city manager's office."