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The Asbury Park City Council gave preliminary approval Wednesday for the 2014 Skate and Surf Festival to come back to the city of its birth May 17 and 18.

Final approval is contingent upon festival promoters and city officials hammering out a contract that lays out all of the specific terms and conditions associated with the event, including security and emergency personnel and cleanup, city attorney Frederick Raffetto said.

“If the cops say 15 cops if the firemen say 30 firemen, whatever it is, it is, or it is not going to happen,” said Councilman John Moor.

Festival founder John D’Esposito, who was not present at the meeting, was not willing to discuss further details of the festival other than to say there will be “music, skating, surfing, and competitive gaming.”

Within the coming weeks, he and other event organizers will negotiate the details of the contract with city officials so the two can formally come to a mutual decision, he said.

“It’s rebuilding a festival,” he said. “To rebuild something it takes a lot of time. We’ve got to shop for the groceries before we cook the stew.”

Joseph Spinelli, an attorney representing the promoter, said he does nor foresee any difficulty in the two parties reaching an agreement.

Spinelli declined to comment on preliminary cost estimates.

The special event application submitted to the city places ticket costs between $55 and $105.

“I remember 4 or 5 years ago when the event was here, and it was a great event,” Councilwoman Sue Henderson said.

Henderson’s chief concern is security at the site.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the city to do it right, we want to make sure that there is enough security,” Henderson said. “This can be a great event but we want to make sure it is done properly.”

Festival promoters originally planned to have the event at the Middletown Swim Club, which sits in the middle of a residential area and has little access to public transportation, according to Tom Gilmour, the city’s special events coordinator.

“They were going to have people park at the Middltown Train Station and then bus them over to the event but they didn’t think the train station was big enough to handle all of the people there. So, they basically denied the application to have it there, but they had approved it originally.”

The concert series is estimated to bring in anywhere between 5,000 to 6,000 people per day, Gilmour said.

The city will be putting together a transportation plan with New Jersey Transit, similar to what was put into place for the 2012 Bamboozle Festival, but not as large in scale, he said.

“For all the people that believe in the music scene in Asbury Park, this is a major victory,” said D’Esposito. “For the past two years it’s been garbage.”

“It’s time for Skate and Surf,” D’Esposito said.

Skate and Surf Fest got its start in Asbury Park in 2001 and later grew into the Bamboozle Festival managed by national concert promoter LiveNation and held at Giants Stadium. Promoters brought Bamboozle back to Asbury Park in 2012 but announced shortly after the festival they would not bring it back the following year.

To view the full concert lineup, visit the Skate and Surf Festival website.

[The photo above shows the crowd in front of the main stage during the 2012 Bamboozle festival.]

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