Your link to Northwest Indiana. tm
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From Our Founder
by Robert J. Wichlinski Let the fall festivals begin! Just when our collective “constitutions” have fully recovered from County Fairs, it’s time to fire up for the flurry of festivals featured in communities throughout our region. In case you’re curious, my very unofficial festival list is as follows: We start with Portage’s Steel Wheels Jamboree August 12-14. On its heels and down the road a bit to the west is Hobart’s Lake Front Festival August 18-21. Next up, we travel south to Kouts on August 27th for Porkfest which incidentally competes for the date with Taste of Porter in the Town of Porter (you could choose to bounce from very southern Porter County to very northern Porter County via S.R. 49 and take ‘em both in I guess). We then move to the busiest month for festivals, September. We start with Oktoberfest in LaPorte and Labor Dayz in Michigan City… I show them both on the same days of September 2-5… which is kinda odd cuz they’re both in the same county just miles apart… if ya like to “fest out” in one weekend, L.P. may be just your ticket. Kiwanis’s Balloonfest is scheduled for September 9th through 11th and coincides with Valparaiso’s Popcornfest to be held on September 10th. You have less than a week to rest up, for on September 16-18 Wizard of Oz Fest comes to Chesterton. Travel a bit south and east of Chesterton to Wanatah to celebrate Scarecrow Fest the following weekend of September 23-25. Had enough? Well festival organizers hope not, because up S.R. 421 from Wanatah is Westville’s Pumpkinfest September 30th through October 2nd which overlaps a bit with Valparaiso’s Vale Fine Arts Festival scheduled for October 1st and 2nd. You probably noticed that following the close of “Fair Season,” not one single weekend is without a festival somewhere in Northwest Indiana. It’s like someone in one community was inspired to have a festival (allegedly, it was Valparaiso’s Popcornfest) and every community sought to emulate the success until the schedule was saturated. I guess I have to ask myself, how much celebration can we endure? I mean, the County Fairs are grueling enough on organizations, volunteers, supporters, participants, AND WALLETS…. but to have to rebound weekend after weekend to “fuel a fest” with the time, and energy, and money required to participate… have we outfested ourselves? Leaders in the City of Valparaiso (arguably, the founder of the fest success) asked themselves that very question following last year’s event. A task force was assembled to study the “nature” of the now famous festival to ascertain whether the event was actually doing the community more harm than good. In the end, organizers determined that “the show must go on.” But I admired the fact that following some pretty ugly incidents associated with the 2004 edition, leaders were courageous enough to engage in critical discussion about the effects of Popcornfest on the community and its contribution to the community’s quality of life. My understanding is that changes have been made… I guess we’ll find out on September 10th. I always thought that the genesis for a community festival was to gather a community in celebration to showcase the talents of its local organizations and offer its treasures to visitors in exchange for their coin thereby injecting “foreign capital” into the local economy. My unscientific observation is that festivals have begun appearing very much like the midway and food court at the County Fairs. The vendors are NOT from the community, let alone the County, or even the State… they sport license plates from afar… it’s a fact… I went out of my way at Ozfest, Popcornfest and Porkfest in 2004 to check my theory. As important, the attendees are less and less visitors to the community bringing their foreign capital to inject in the local economy. In large margin those attending are members of the community itself. Now what’s WRONG with this picture… foreign vendors preying on the pocketbooks of the locals who staged the festival for the purposes of achieving just the opposite. Instead of injecting new capital into the local economy, the money’s LEAVING the community in the cashboxes of vendors from Ohio, and Iowa, and Illinois. And worse, the community is left with exhausted citizens and the bills associated with staging the event… those bills, incidentally are often buried in budgets of the local city or town which means, you guessed it, the community is again paying through their taxes dollars. I mean how weird is it that in Valparaiso the local merchants close their businesses during Popcornfest to avoid the expense and hassles of doing business with the crowds… they actually CLOSE THEIR DOORS and do not even consider reaping profits from sales to visitors from afar. I don’t know the solution to the problem. It really is up to each community to decide… I’m just observing. My sense is that other local communities will need to confront what Valparaiso did last year before they engage in some serious, critical self-examination and ask, “is this what we intended to realize from our festival and how does this event truly contribute to an increase in our quality of life?” Got a “fest fetish”? If ya need more information on festivals in our region and throughout the State try visiting www.indianafestivals.com … you won’t be disappointed! As always, I can be reached via e-mail at b@219.com |
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