The scene at developer Patrick Conley ’s Providence Piers, where concessions have been set up for the Puerto Rican Cultural Festival. Nearby are businesses, some of which have clashed with Conley over use of his space for festivals.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — The organizers of the Puerto Rican Cultural Festival have gotten last-minute city approvals that will allow them to hold their waterfront festival this weekend — but were denied a liquor license, a rejection that they say will put their entire event in jeopardy.

The lead sponsor, organizers said, is Budweiser, and if they cannot serve alcohol and retain Budweiser’s sponsorship, they may not be able to pay for the significant police details required by the city.

“You might as well close the festival. Budweiser is our main sponsor,” said festival president Carmen Bucholz.

The festival’s organizers are saying that the denial is race-related. Other festivals at the Providence Piers site, such as a WBRU event last weekend, have been allowed to serve alcohol, they said.

“That’s completely unequal treatment — they approved it before, for other people,” said organizer Vivian Moreno.

Licensing Board Vice Chairman Gordon Fox, who is also House majority leader, said that race has nothing to do with it — the board simply doesn’t know enough about their plan to condone liquor sales at the festival.

“I am not convinced, ladies and gentlemen, that a liquor license is appropriate for this outing,” Fox said.

The board, Fox said, has “very little information about the control of it, and in the past this has been a non-alcohol event,” he said.

“We don’t know how many people are going to show up, we don’t know what exactly the parking situation is going to be, we don’t know exactly what the police are going to deal with because of those two situations,” he said.

Jenny Rosario, a festival organizer, said that it is unfair to do this to the festival at the last minute.

“They’re giving licenses to college kids and not to us? How can they not give it to us?” Rosario said.

Fox fired back that this is the fourth time that the organizers have been before the board, and that they have not presented adequate plans yet.

“The reason that it’s been here four times is that this has been evolving. No one came here the first hearing with a plan to do this. We’re trying to balance the equities here, but at some point, look in the mirror,” Fox said.

“I don’t want to hear any more about how this is unfair or prejudiced,” said Fox, who is of Cape Verdean descent.

Rosario, who is vice chair of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said that the entire situation is the result of fallout against the Latino community stemming from the recent statewide debates over immigration.

“This whole climate, it’s affecting the way they see us. I feel insulted,” she said.

The festival has also been drawn into a larger battle over zoning along the Allens Avenue waterfront. The festival is planned for the Providence Piers property owned by developer Patrick T. Conley, who has rented the space to festivals there all summer even though it is not zoned for that use.

Conley wants to use the large empty lot at his site for parking in the winter, and came before the city to ask for a zoning variance allowing the parking. City officials told him that he must make the festivals legal as well if he wanted the parking variance.

Conley has long been in conflict with the industrial businesses of Allens Avenue, who fear that he plans to introduce commercial buildings, or possibly condominiums, among the heavy industrial businesses there.

When these neighboring industrial and adult businesses realized that Conley was seeking the variances, they came out in opposition, as they say they have been negatively affected by residents trying to park on their lots during this summer’s festivals.

The next festival scheduled to take place was the Puerto Rican celebration, and the permits sanctioning the festival were put on hold until the zoning variances were decided. After a five-hour hearing Tuesday night that finished just before 1 a.m. yesterday, Conley was granted his variances, allowing the festival to proceed. According to planning staff, Conley was granted the ability to hold outdoor festivals until Oct. 31 of this year, and can use the site for parking until September 2010.

With the variances in place, the permits to hold the event were finally issued late yesterday afternoon, but the long road has angered festival organizers, who say they felt caught in the middle.

They have a right to feel aggrieved, said Erik Bright of the Partnership for Creative Industrial Space, who has worked on Conley’s behalf to help make the event happen.

“They’re really getting a raw deal here,” he said.

While he thinks the festival will go forward, he said he’s unsure if they’ll be able to pay for it if Budweiser is lost as a sponsor. The city has required police details of 12 police officers each of the three days of the festival, which begins Friday evening. Attendance estimates have ranged from as low as 2,500 people to as high as 12,000 people.

Bright said that the roadies setting up the festival have halted work halfway through, unsure if the event will go forward as planned.

“It’s a lot to keep people on pins and needles. Should they keep setting up and just have twice as much stuff to break down if it doesn’t happen?”

Festival organizers said they will appeal the licensing board’s decision to withhold the liquor license. A hearing is set for tomorrow.

dbarbari@projo.com