Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley’s deadline was not met by MG Vet Fest LLC, the company hired to put together a lakefront festival.

Fireworks that were expected to erupt at a July 4 lakefront festival in Waukegan, carried a strong undercurrent running through the city’s June 6 council meeting.

Its promoters, MG Vet Fest LLC, had failed to meet a deadline imposed by Mayor Wayne Motley for music line-up information, a donor list, and specified payments, causing speculation as to its viability.

Vet Fest was originally slated for the Memorial Day weekend, and then moved to the Independence Day time slot. It had touted as an opening salvo for the summer season that would rival other proximal larger-name festivals. While featuring top-tier musical acts, mixed with food and beverages, the main attraction for the city was the site pegged for the activities: Waukegan’s lakefront, and the municipal beach area.

Motley’s demand for information was issued, just prior to the original May date, and a subsequent request from the organizers seeking a further delay into mid-August was not discussed at the June 6 meeting, nor did it appear on its agenda. The group had made an initial non-refundable $50,000 payment to the city that was earmarked for staff and personnel expenses over the course of the event’s duration.

The festival principals sought the later date, allegedly to accommodate organizational changes, as well as a new attorney to handle their legal affairs. Steve Martin, the city’s Corporation Counsel, had said that a second $50,000 payment to the city, stipulated in the outlined agreement, had yet to be forwarded.

“We’re still working, still negotiating, still talking,” he said. “They have new counsel representing them, and we’ve been talking since June 3, trying to put this together. That’s exactly where it’s at, right now, and nothing more. One concern is that most of the payments that were agreed upon, have not been made.”

The other specified payments include a $50,000 reimbursement for municipal efforts in obtaining the state of Illinois Department of Transportation authorization to shut down the Amstutz Expressway for the festival period, a $25,000 remunerative amount for the use of municipal parking areas, and an additional $50,000 payout for the proposed fireworks display.

Motley also indicated that no city expenses have been incurred to date, other than the work completed by the city’s office support staff. The expected funds were potentially to be applied toward matching grants for the lakefront through federal and state channels, which are still in process.

The actual music line-up for the festival is also under wraps, through an accord that prevents city officials from revealing the artists, in deference to the promoters making the announcement. No new information has been provided since the original series of public relations releases, and Martin agreed that the “time-window” for advertising and itinerary dissemination is reduced with each passing day.

“We’re still talking, and that’s all there is to say,” said Martin.

Waukegan is actively attempting to market its lakefront area as a prime location for commercial development, and has created tax-increment financing districts to aid infrastructure work and basic improvements. Remediation work on three contaminated lakefront sites, which formerly held industrial concerns, has since received approval that clean-up efforts are completed.

Last month, Motley made an offer to backers of the embattled George Lucas Museum to re-locate, from Chicago’s lakefront to Waukegan’s shoreline. At the time, he also said, should the offer be rebuffed, a worst-case scenario is that hundreds of thousands of developers were made aware of the Waukegan lakefront as a prime opportunity.

Requests for further comment from Motley, concerning Vet Fest, were not successful.