Last night was a special event in our town, music and food. I didnt go, just didnt want to for no reason and beside the point. Why I lead off with it here has to do with the price of the food. $10 for a hamburger plate??? Five bucks for a hotdog, but the music is free. And, you can buy beer, wine, soft drinks, etc. Probably not a huge amount of money to pay for a meal but my brain says its overpriced for a small town gathering and I wonder how many people in town didnt go because the prices were high for such ordinary fare.


Where I live there are several events over the summer. One such event centers around locally grown fruit. There is a parade and street vendors, good food, fun stuff to look at, unique stuff to buy, lots of people, some public service stuff like free ID kit for kids including fingerprints you keep in the kit in case they are ever needed. At least that is how it started out, now its pretty lame, very few vendors left due to the thinking by they that organize the event that they need to charge more for booth space; you keep raising the charges and eventually your vendors will weigh the charge and hassle of running a booth against the expected profits and decide its not worth it. I wonder if the event will eventually falter and die a quiet death.

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Same thing for another July festival in town, its got a great premise, one evening of fun in downtown, close off the street, music, food, booths, walk from one end of town to the other browsing the wares, and enjoying the atmosphere, its only been going on for a few years and already seems to be faltering, the beer garden profits though, imagine that?


They (the powers that be in this town) keep trying to revitalize the downtown area but you cant fix something if you dont acknowledge the truth - its too expensive to have a shop downtown; the building owners want too much rent and there are not enough customers spending money to make rent. I suppose thats partly because online resources cut into any shops profits and thats not the building owners problem but they hold one of the keys to the solution.


Our county fair seems to be suffering the same woes, lower attendance with fewer dollars being spent; but the fare is lame, the offerings are the same cheap stuff offered at every event because the people offering unique handmade items have decided the price outweighs the profits so they opt out. Ditto can be said of our Rodeo Days.


Where am I going with this?


Reading the thread about whether to join the WSO, the issue of the books sales and high cost of premium java chat service effecting the decision of whether or not to participate because the costs outweigh the benefits; I think it falls into the same theme. I know that organizers of events need to make money to keep the event going, advertising, organizational time, permits, etc. are all costs that have to be paid so they have to charge money where they can. Are they charging too much? Would the event/organization benefit more from having more participants paying a smaller fee rather than a few vendors paying high fees?


Im not sure I got where I was headed, but I hope I got the gist out. It doesnt feel like it has much to do with us; just a lament of mine I guess, that street events, fair, rodeo celebrations, all seem to be faltering and I wonder how much things might change if they werent trying so hard to make a buck and instead just wanted to make a good thing better to heck with the profits!

Thanks for listening, now go outside and enjoy the Sunday morning weather - its beautiful here! Cheers!