As warmer weather arrives and Tristate entertainment moves outdoors, backers of the Cincinnati boycott are ready to hit the streets.

        “You're going to be seeing a lot more physical protests, signs and pickets and bodies,” said Amanda Mayes, who chairs the action committee of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati. “A lot of that will be going on downtown in front of businesses, the stadium and at summer concerts and festivals like Jammin' (on Main) and Taste (of Cincinnati).”

        Except for a few high-profile cancellations, it's been concert business as usual, with dozens of events proceeding throughout the Tristate. But protests at events — added to last year's riots, this year's Jazz Festival cancellation and boycotts by Bill Cosby, Whoopi Goldberg and Wynton Marsalis — could further erode a negative national image for Greater Cincinnati and its entertainment industry. The result could be major long-term damage, members of that industry say.

        “If you (the artist or booking agent) are looking at three different places, and one of them has this big, glaring negative next to it, you're just going to say the heck with it,” said Jazz Festival producer Joe Santangelo.

        It's already happening. Artists who would have played here are avoiding conflict by booking shows in nearby cities.

        • Prince had planned a March 5 date at Music Hall, but announced that “technical difficulties” prevented him from appearing. Instead, he played Columbus.

        • Smokey Robinson canceled a Feb. 13 Taft Theatre show. He's booked for July 12 at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering, Ohio.

        • Wynton Marsalis canceled his March 16 Aronoff Center performance. Next April, he plays in Oxford.

        • R&B star Usher, among those acts planned for the jazz fest at Cinergy, is playing Riverbend, just outside the city limits, on June 7.

        Despite its rock 'n' roll image, the concert business is inherently conservative, shying away from controversy.

        “Since it is a gamble, why take that chance? In this day and age the profit margins in this business have gotten so slim, you need the odds in your favor. So why not just go to a different city?” said promoter Charlie Blum, president of Star Productions in suburban Chicago.

        Mr. Blum, who managed Riverbend in the '80s, regularly booked old-school R&B into Music Hall, at least before the riots. Last year, he didn't bring his annual Thanksgiving weekend O'Jays concert to town. As the controversy continues, he has no plans for local shows.

        “I'm waiting until the dust settles,” Mr. Blum said. “Why would I want to go in there when I have other markets to choose from?”

        For out-of-town promoters, that's the easiest solution, particularly when five similar-sized markets — Dayton, Indianapolis, Louisville, Lexington and Columbus — are all within a 100-mile radius.

        “When an artist's talking about going out and working a 20-city tour, or even a 40-city tour, you don't have to play Cincinnati. Everybody has to play New York and L.A. and probably, Chicago. After that, it's a toss-up,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert industry trade journal Pollstar.

        For the most part, though, it's been concert business as usual.

        Although half a dozen events were canceled, dozens have gone on at the Taft Theatre, Music Hall, Firstar Center, the Aronoff and Memorial Hall.

        “We didn't lose anything (to boycott cancellations),” said Firstar Center manager Jim Moehring. “And as far as attendance goes, we didn't see any big shifts.”

        During the boycott, Firstar hosted the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, a Kenny Chesney country concert, the Target Stars on Ice tour and various sports events. Since Riverbend opened in 1984, the downtown arena has had few summer concerts. But this year, Firstar will be host of one of the season's hottest tours, the “Down From the Mountain” concert, on July 9.

        But national perception is very different. When news of the boycott hit the media, Mr. Moehring said, “I was getting phone calls from around the country, agents, talent, managers, (all saying), "What's going on down there?' I'm hoping this thing is starting to subside.”

        For concert-goers, at least, it seems to be.

        When Fred Hammond & Commissioned played the Aronoff Center on April 20, the R&B/gospel group drew more than 2,000.

        Some in the almost exclusively African-American crowd thought the boycott had ended with settlement of the police profiling case.

        “I don't know if it's going on or not,' Sheila Milton of West Chester said as she entered the downtown theater. “But I never let anything stop me from doing what I want to do.”

        “I support the boycott, but this was an event I could not miss,” said Marilyn Sandidge of Kennedy Heights.

        “I thought that the boycott had ended,” said Raymone Bain, Mr. Hammond's Washington-based tour publicist. As of a few days before the concert, she said Mr. Hammond had not been approached to boycott Cincinnati. Neither had Manhattan Transfer, according to a spokesman for the jazz/pop vocal group that appeared last weekend with the Cincinnati Pops at Music Hall.

        The coalition's Ms. Mayes said she's not sure whether Mr. Hammond was asked to boycott the city. “He was not asked to not perform by me personally,” she said.

        All cancellations so far have been by artists specifically targeted by boycott groups. “Everybody is being asked not to perform here,” Ms. Mayes said. “Some people are personally contacted, while others are not.”

        Some have chosen to make a statement by performing here. Social activist vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock played the Aronoff Center on Jan. 26. It was Sweet Honey's leader Bernice Reagon's second local appearance since the boycott began at last year's Taste of Cincinnati.

        She and daughter Toshi Reagon performed here in August.

        “It was important for us to be there and be there with people who were actually working on issues that crossed race and culture and class in the community,” she said.

        May could be the make-or-break month for the boycott. Last year, Pepsi Jammin' on Main was canceled because of the April riots. Taste of Cincinnati was targeted by the early boycott, as first Midnight Star and then the Isley Brothers canceled appearances.

        This year's Jammin' headliner is the Roots, a socially conscious rap band that seems a prime boycott target. So far, the Roots remain on the Jammin' schedule, according to a spokesman for Clear Channel Entertainment, which books the festival.

        Taste's headliner is Morris Day & the Time, the Prince protege group.

        Learning from last year's cancellations, Raymond Buse, public relations manager for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, said that if the Time drops out, “we do have a backup group.” He declined to name it, however.

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