Charm City wants to know if Artscape is cursed.
The superstitious among us are secretly wondering if some festival organizer stepped on a crack in the pavement or walked under an errant ladder. All we know is it’s just been one thing after another with Artscape these last few years.
A witch’s coven could not be summoned and requests for comment went unreturned.
From COVID-19 pandemic-related cancelations to powerful thunderstorms and messy political snafus, here’s a recap of the hurdles and setbacks that have beleaguered one of the nation’s largest free outdoor arts festivals lately.
The weather
No, it’s not your imagination: Artscape days can get hot.
At least one day of the festival has fallen during a heat wave in eight of the last 13 years, according to data from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. That means it fell during a period of three or more days where temperatures reached at least 90 degrees.
This past weekend, temperatures reached 100 degrees on Friday and 95 degrees on Saturday; it also rained both days. Though not the hottest days of the year, they came close to the record, said Luis Rosa, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Rosa said festival planners may be able to avoid complications in the future by pushing the festival to late September or early October — though there’s no guarantee it’ll be smooth sailing even then.
“It sounds like bad luck, honestly,” Rosa said. He said not to worry too much about cursed weather weekends.
Artscape-goers have braved dramatic weather in years past, too.
In 1982, the weekend’s final performances were driven under emergency cover by a “long, steady downpour,” The Baltimore Sun wrote at the time. In 1986, the skies opened up and pushed some acts indoors. In 1989, the rain returned again. And so on.
This year, the storms washed away Chaka Khan’s Friday night performance — though music’s “Queen of Funk” told Mayor Brandon Scott she would return soon, he posted on social media.
Bureaucratic mishaps
Artscape entered a period of turmoil starting in 2022, when the Baltimore City law department revealed during a budget hearing that it had blocked the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts from trademarking “Artscape” in defiance of its contract with the city.
The festival wasn’t held that year, nor in 2021 or 2020 due to COVID-19. In 2023, festival organizers failed to come to terms with both Ja Rule and Kelly Rowland to take the stage as headliners before ultimately signing DJ Pee .Wee, the alter-ego of Grammy Award-winning artist Anderson .Paak.
That same year, storms interfered with a day of programming. The 2023 festival, held in late September, pushed one of the city’s largest affairs to a later date and butted up against Yom Kippur, a major Jewish holiday.
This past March, a new BOPA CEO entered the fold, ushering in an era of stability for the organization. But prolonged negotiations with the city left the arts organization in danger of not finalizing its contract ahead of the festival; the contract was approved just in time.
Turning a corner
Except for the weather, Artscape 2024 should be considered a success, said Rachel D. Graham, the CEO of BOPA.
Graham said it’s still too early to evaluate the economic impact of the festival. But Graham, who took the reins this past winter, said she’s pleased with the crowd numbers she saw.
“We’re looking at better numbers this year than last year,” Graham said.
The team will consider moving the festival back to July, Graham said, which she considers fundamental to Artscape’s identity and helps set the cadence for the city’s events schedule. But for now, Graham said she wants to put this curse rumor to rest.
“I wish we could’ve done all the content,” she said. “But the shows we did were amazing. The footprint looked amazing. I’m not going to give any credence to that [curse rumor].”
It’s a miracle, she added, that no one was harmed during the weekend storms — and that the festival footprint wound up relatively unscathed compared with the rest of the city.
Still, Boston eventually broke its Curse of the Bambino. The rumored-cursed Hope Diamond hasn’t been blamed for anyone’s death in years.
We recommend Artscape planners throw some salt or, for best results, Old Bay over their shoulder to summon better luck in 2025.
