San Diego

A free concert on Mariner’s Point to aid the homeless has been called off because city officials feared there would be no effective crowd control.

The concert was scheduled for Sunday and was to benefit the United States Mission, which runs five homeless shelters in San Diego, said the Rev. Pat Rocco, the mission’s director.

Although the permit application asked for a music area to accommodate 200 people and three to four bands, the concert actually was going to feature 14 bands and would have attracted thousands to Mission Bay Park, said Marcia McClatchy, assistant deputy director of the city’s Park and Recreation Department.

San Diego police notified the park department that they could not provide the personnel to monitor the event on such short notice, McClatchy said.

Promoters applied for the permit July 6. The permit was rejected several weeks ago, and park officials tried to reach Rocco and the concert promoter to notify them, McClatchy said. They were finally notified Thursday.

Rocco said city officials knew all along that there would be 14 bands and called the estimate of thousands in attendance “a lie.” The mission had already paid for advertisements, concessions and T-shirts for the event, Rocco said.