Denver Direct: Open Air Cinema Fades

Facing continued neighborhood opposition, OpenAir Cinema operators are canceling plans to close part of Civic Center Park this summer for outdoor movies. Mayoral aide Heather Barry notified officers of Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation by telephone that OpenAir “couldn’t find a sponsor.”

The financial arrangements of the deal have been in question since the City Council approved the controversial contract with OpenAir last month by a vote of 8-to-4. A Denver newspaper now reports that the city’s expected revenue appears to be even lower than the figures originally presented to Council.

The outdoor movies, to have been presented by the Massachusetts affiliate of a Swiss company, were to have been part of the Biennial of the Americas arts festival later this year. That festival has been scaled back from its original plan, and there is widespread speculation the event is confronting serious financial difficulties.

The Denver Post reports OpenAir still want to have its inaugural event in Denver at Civic Center in 2011, instead of City Park.

(Editor’s note: I wonder how much money was wasted by the City pursuing this no-bid contract for an illegal lease of park space. I don’t recall any mention being made of the possibility that OpenAir had yet to find a sponsor.)