The Evens at Fort Reno last August. (Photo by Joseph Leonardo

Good news, everyone: The Fort Reno summer concert series is back on.

After word came that the long-running Tenleytown concert series wouldn’t be happening this summer—the first time since 1968—because of a dispute with the National Park Service and the U.S. Park Police, the local music community was crushed. However, thanks to a meeting, facilitated by D.C. Shadow Senator Paul Strauss, between the NPS, USPP, and Fort Reno organizer Amanda MacKaye, the shows will go on, with the first one scheduled to take place next Monday, July 7.

On the Kojo Nnamdi show this afternoon, MacKaye, along with Tara Morrison, NPS Superintendent of Rock Creek Park and Allan Griffith, a Lieutenant with the USPP, MacKaye confirmed the return of the series and explained what went wrong.

“We’re back on track,” she said on the show. “It’s always been a very easy simple process, I don’t know why this year was different.”

What changed this year is that new USPP regulations called for a Park Police officer to be present for each show, whose time MacKaye and concert organizers would have to pay for. The price, as it turned out, is well beyond MacKaye’s micro budget to put on the free concert series. Additionally, MacKaye said she wasn’t told she’d have to pay for an officer to be present until late in the permit process, which led to her decision to cancel this year’s series.

“It was a delayed conversation,” Morrison said on the Kojo show. “This was something we should have scheduled last summer.” But, because of the public outrage and pressure from politicians, including Strauss, Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, that conversation finally happened. Though MacKaye will have to pay more to make Fort Reno happen this year, she said that a deal was worked out so she won’t have to pay it all up front.

Since day one, shows at Fort Reno have always been free—with bands playing for free and volunteers giving up their time to help make each show happen—without any kind of sponsorship. So what about the possibility of opening up Fort Reno to sponsorship opportunities to help fund the additional costs?

“It will never happen,” MacKaye said. “Growing up in the D.C. punk scene, it’s in my blood. I cannot sell out the music.”