Live from the Rooftop is organized by U'Gundi Jacobs, the director of the William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center.
The event was most recently rescheduled because of parking garage maintenance.
Live from the Rooftop is now slated for May 28.
A nine-hour rooftop party that the Midtown Brandywine Neighbors' Association opposed has been rescheduled and revamped.
Live from the Rooftop, a party for up to 1,000 people, is now scheduled to take place Memorial Day weekend on May 28 and will become a silent rave after midnight, said organizer U'Gundi Jacobs.
The event was originally slated for Labor Day weekend at the Colonial Parking Garage, a private facility at 12th and North Orange streets, but was postponed to Oct. 1 because of weather. The event received pushback from Midtown Brandywine residents concerned about noise and potential alcohol-fueled disturbances in their neighborhood. The most recent date was canceled because of maintenance work at the garage, Jacobs said.
The change to cut the music after midnight was made to accommodate concerns, Jacobs said, but organizers are embracing the opportunity to try a party trend where guests wear headphones.
"We're going to get even fancier," he said. "One door closes, two doors open."
Promotional material for the Oct. 1 event had promised live DJs, R&B and hip-hop music, food, merchandise, bottle service and cabana rentals for up to $600. Jacobs said much of that will likely stay the same but given the extra time, "we may spice it up."
Over two dozen members of the Midtown Brandywine Neighbors' Association voted unanimously against the event at a recent meeting, said Marc Ramos, the association's president. Ramos wrote to the mayor and City Council on Sept. 14 requesting the event's permits be revoked.
Ramos said on Monday that the neighborhood association will meet Tuesday to discuss the event's new date.
"Everybody was happy it wasn’t going to happen," he said. "We asked for 11 p.m ... I think 12 is still too late."
Lyn Doto, a Midtown Brandywine resident, said the event should be held in an area that isn't within yards of homeowners.
"I'm not against the promoter's event," she said. "But an event aiming to draw several hundred attendees does not belong in a small residential neighborhood."
Jacobs, who is the executive director of the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center, said the additional time will allow for warmer weather and for negative associations with the event to fade.
"It had left a sour taste in the public's mouths," he said.
The event had enlisted the help of private security, the Wilmington Police Department and the nonprofit Downtown Visions. Those entities will still be involved in the spring, Jacobs said.
As part of the event's approval process, organizers must obtain signatures from the community. Residents said last month that some homeowners who signed the "petition of affected parties" didn't understand the magnitude of the event, which is described as a "rooftop experience" on the form. Jacobs said he presented the event accurately.
Jacobs will have to get signatures again and reapply for all permits obtained for the Labor Day weekend party, said city spokeswoman Alexandra Coppadge.
"Hopefully there would be less people signing it," Ramos said.
Councilwoman Loretta Walsh said she inquired to the city's Office of Cultural Affairs last month on behalf of the Midtown Brandywine community but never heard back. She said the event's delay allows for residents and a new mayoral administration to ask questions.
"If the appropriate rules are not followed, new people will be in charge then and perhaps it will be revisited," she said.