City Council May Ban Concerts on Common

The Sunday afternoon rock concerts on the Cambridge Common have run into some trouble with the City government.

This year's first concert is scheduled to take place Sunday, but at this-week's city council meeting, councillor Walter J. Sullivan made it clear that he, for one, didn't want psychedelic sounds to fill the Common that afternoon, or on any Sunday:

"It's time to give the Common back to the Citizens of Cambridge... Don't get me wrong-there are some good kids there, but it's the element they attract that disturbs the citizens of Cambridge," he said.

Saying that the concerts of the past two years had created traffic, crowd congestion, clean up problems, and hinting that they were used for drug sales, Sullivan introduced a motion under which City officials would enforce regulations against the concerts.

Although what regulations would be enforced remained unclear throughout the debate, Sullivan said that the idea behind his order was to stop the concerts.

During the hour-long debate that followed, several Harvard Square clergy and Jim Parry, a member of the committee sponsoring the concerts, came before the council to defend the rock sessions.

Relieving Tension

Parry pointed out that, after similar complaints arose last year, the concert committee instituted measures to keep down noise and clean up the Common after the concerts. He added that the concerts performed a service for Cambridge. "The tension among people on the street is building up," he said, "the concerts help to relieve that tension."

An Alternate Site

Several City Councillors and City Manager James L. Sullivan agreed the concerts were of some value to the City, but said something had to be done to ease the accompanying problems such as crowds and traffic.

They suggested finding an alternate con-cert site-either on state-owned land along the Charles River, or on Harvard property where the Earth People's festival was held last weekend. The City Manager and the concert committee, who made similar, but unsuccessful efforts at relocation last year, agreed to continue their efforts.

With this agreement, the council decided to lay the anti-concert motion on the table for two weeks, to give them time to find an alternate site.

Yesterday, the City Manager and Harvard officials conferred on the possible use of University property for the concerts, but Harvard officials reached no decision on such use.

So, as it stands, local rock fans will be able to groove on the Common this Sunday and next, but after that, nobody knows.