Budget cuts shorten Fest

[george7]

All of these Fests are free to the public. Vendors and food stands pay for their spaces. The City pays the talent. There are corporate sponsors. But in all cases outside contractors do all of the transport, set up, tent rental, sanitation, etc. The Fests are a tourist draw.

Best

AA

Lest we forget it is the taxpayers, and not the city, who pay for (and benefit from) the event.

[auld argonian]

Lest we forget it is the taxpayers, and not the city, who pay for (and benefit from) the event.

Only continuing to talk about the intricacies of the funding and revenue of this because it's interesting; the Downtown Chicago area has a higher tax on sales, parking, hotel rooms and amusements than the rest of the city. The reason? Ostensibly it's the tourists, conventioneers and visiting business people who are supporting the Downtown infrastructure and paying for a good chunk of the public entertainment expenses. I'm sure that every destination city has some kind of policy like this and also has a tourism and conventions bureau as well as a healthy advertising budget to coax tourists to come and spend money.

I was actually bringing it up because I'm afraid that, given the economic situation, it's the shape of things to come for some of our favorite events in the future. Let me know if anybody hears of any similar cutbacks in other future events.

Best

AA