Wintergrass won't make an announcement about whether the popular bluegrass festival is staying in Tacoma or moving to Bellevue until tomorrow at the soonest, according to director Patrice O'Neill.

The City of Tacoma, Tacoma Regional Convention & Visitor Bureau and other entities offered concessions to woo Wintergrass back to Tacoma earlier this week. But the final hitch appears to be the festival's contract with Hotel Murano, where the Wintergrass office is located and a bulk of musical activity takes place in February.

Wintergrass organizers gave Hotel Murano until 5 p.m. today to revise the contract extension it had submitted to them earlier this week. And the Murano has been working with festival co-director Stephen Ruffo today to come up with a contract that "is a detailed and satisfactory response to the things that are most troubling to Wintergrass fans," according to an e-mail sent a short while ago.

Many Wintergrass attendees have been put off by a less jam-friendly atmosphere since Hotel Murano (formerly the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel) opened in 2008. Organizers feel the art-filled Murano's icy reception to instrumental jam sessions - an essential part of the festival for many - is partly to blame for a 25 percent drop in attendance at this year's festival.

"I am pushing as hard as I can to get this done by tomorrow," O'Neill wrote by e-mail. "Otherwise it will be Monday. Things are looking pretty good for Tacoma right now, but that's about as much as I can say."

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