For those that have wondered what it takes to put on a huge festival in a large metropolitan area the following will give you some idea. Following is an example of my journey to keep the Chesterton festival alive. Location #1 (approx. Sept. 2013) – Proposed to be held on municipal property. After 1 ½ months of multiple meetings with the mayor, board members, and the village manager and submitting a proposal to cover festival: marketing, security, parking, volunteers, etc. the village determined they were not capable of handling the parking necessary without causing a major disruption to their village. So I started the task of contacting other villages. Location #2 – Proposed to be held on municipal property. Parking for over 4,000 cars and a 12 acre open field park showed huge promise. After multiple conversations, I was informed the village was going to charge $3 for parking. I refused to allow anyone to charge for admission or parking to the event. So, I started the task of contacting other villages. Location #3 – On 52 acre private outdoor venue. After multiple meetings with individual board members, I was given a verbal rate of $4,000 to rent the property for the weekend. After the venue repeatedly cancelled and rescheduled meetings, 4 weeks later they presented me with a contract with a rate of $18,000 rent the property for the weekend. That’s a 450% increase. So I started the task contacting other villages. Location #4 – Proposed to be held on municipal property. This seemed promising with a train station next door and parking for over 1,000 cars. However, 6 months and 18 meetings with village personnel later, and to many changes to even list, the village still had not issued the special event permit. With only 3 ½ months to the festival I thought it was over and was ready to throw in the towel. But after 2 days of rest, I started at it again and contacted 47 villages over the next few days. Most responses were they have a festival in September or they could not handle a festival with this potential attendance (there are over 8 Million people within a 1 hour drive of the area) Location #5 - Proposed to be held on municipal property. After making contact with a commissioner in a neighboring village, the suggestion of using a Metra Train Station parking lot to hold the festival was brought up. After multiple meetings, the village decided the festival would cause a huge inconvenience to hundreds of commuters. BUT, they were really excited about the festival (and I didn’t forget that) Location #6 – I decided to research private venues where I would be talking to business people who would possibly have more of an interest in hosting the festival. Found a good potential location. However, within weeks the venue owner started making unreasonable demands, such as no other food vendors can be at the festival (he wanted to handle all of the food sales), he wanted to bring in a carnival that he was connected with (so he could make money from the carnival), he wanted to charge admission. While he was adding some attractions to the festival grounds, I saw the writing on the wall. His interest was NOT about providing a venue where I could put on an incredible Wizard of Oz Festival to bring happiness and memories to thousands of people. His interest was finding as many ways as possible to charge people for things so he would make more money. So with less than 2 months to the festival date I walked away again. After spending every single day for the last 6 months trying to create a festival that was worthy of having the name Wizard of Oz associated with it, receiving phone calls to my home from people telling me they will boycott the festival because I “stole” it from Chesterton, and one phone call at 10:30pm on a Friday evening (that shook up my wife) from someone who was out of control telling me I’m destroying the festival, I was completely worn out. After talking to numerous Wizard of Oz friends and hearing, “you gave it your best shot”, “let it go”, I thought maybe it was really too late. Then, I looked at pictures of my daughters at the Chesterton festival when they were young, I saw the smile on their faces and I couldn’t let this festival die, without trying one more time. Location # 7 – I called back the village involved with location #5 and asked them if there was anything that we can do to keep this festival alive. The mayor talked to me on a Sunday afternoon, the Park District Commissioner, the Exec. Director of the Chamber of Commerce, the Public Works department, the Special Events Department ALL rallied together over the next couple of days and a very bold suggestion was made. Use the commuter parking lot with over 3,500 parking spaces for parking (not the festival), use the large overflow lot for the carnival and then completely shut down the main entrance and exit road from the parking lot (Veterans Parkway) that winds through a park and wooded area and use the road as part of the festival, the road can be lined with vendor booths and attractions, use the soccer field in the park for the Guinness World Record Attempt and the open field at the end of the road for the main tent, the hot air balloon and the farm area. I was shocked at the suggestion, a commissioner immediately took out his cell phone and called the mayor who was on vacation, the Mayor said I like it, run it past everyone and see if we can get the support it needs. That final meeting takes place tomorrow at 11:30am, I will be meeting with a group to discuss the final details. If you believe in Prayer, I am asking for you to say one for me for tomorrow’s meeting MidwestOzFest.Com.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 02:50:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015