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Sunday, September 24, 2017

National Folk Festival: Free to attend, costly to produce

GREENSBORO — More than 100,000 people will fill downtown streets next weekend for the city’s biggest three-day party.

From Sept. 9 to 11, they will take in the multicultural mix of traditional music, dance, storytelling, arts and crafts of the National Folk Festival.

All for free.

But behind the scenes, festival organizers strive to raise about $1.3 million in cash to make it happen.

More


Publishers Notes: Is Mayor Day telling us the truth about Salisbury's financial commitment?

67 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salisbury can do as they please, but as a taxpayer in Wicomico County I would hope that the County stay as far away from this as they can get.

Anonymous said...

Does day tell the truth about anything?

Anonymous said...

At the rate main street is being repaired downtown wont be ready for another 5 years.

Anonymous said...

Greensboro will suggest a donation of $10 per person per day, but will be grateful for any size donation, Grossmann said.

That is not free. I have attended actual FREE festivals and no one is standing there with a bucket begging for money. Ever.

I am not donating a dime. Sorry Jake. Free is free.

Anonymous said...

Greensboro has a population of 287,000
Salisbury has a population of 33,000

Anonymous said...

I'm leaving town next year for this cluster.

Anonymous said...

Jake day hasn't told the truth since taking over mayors office. The truth is beyond his capabilities

Anonymous said...

I have the strongest feeling this is going to make news as a flop and going to cost the city and the county 10's if not 100's of thousands of dollars. The city of Salisbury can not and does not have the infrastructure to accommodate 30,000 people a day for 3 days! It will flop because people who will travel to attend will quickly find out there is absolutely no place to stay within a reasonable distance to attend the festival. Has anyone tried to get a local hotel room during the dates proposed? Nearly impossible now so where are you going to put visitors to such a festival? Would you as a group want to perform where they cannot put up all the people who want to see you perform?

Anonymous said...

will be interesting to see how much his buddies, including gillis, donate.

Anonymous said...

Maybe sell the fireboat to raise $$$

Anonymous said...

LOL Day gets hosed again. He is a swinder's dream. This seems like one of those things that no one with a brain wants like the Dew Tour. Ends up costing way too much for practically zero benefits.

Anonymous said...

I hopes they have lot of native African rap culture music there

Anonymous said...

7:39 AM Aren't you a hoot. First all we do have the infrastructure for 30K people because that is our population. Also you are eluding that ALL hotel rooms are already booked for next years festival. total BS. are you part of the clown show?

Anonymous said...

7:16 AM Interesting. They want $60 for my family of six to see a FREE show. Then they want me to buy food beer and gifts. Not happening.

Anonymous said...

Wish he put this much effort into crime, drugs and rundown rental properties.

Anonymous said...

Since it's the hotels, motels and restaurant & fast food joints that would profit from this farce, let them pony up the funds for it -- LOL.

And PRMC better get ready for the overflow of drug overdose and other things that will be coming to them because most won't have insurance.

Anonymous said...

I'm praying this festival is a flop and the daily barrage of the crime, homeless begging, and drug culture infests Day's fantasy festival and anything else he endorses. His actions don't speak for the community as a whole it seems that a total debacle and outright embarrassment to the city and day personally is what urs going to take to reel this clown back in

Anonymous said...

Joe, I think you are doing a really good job of bringing light to this. This article was really informative. I keep thinking, "what has Salisbury gotten itself into..."

Anonymous said...

Where would they actually hold this? In a parking lot? City park? We simply do not have the "green" space for such an event.
Sadly, this will be a flop and yet again, Wicomico Co will be embarrassed.

Anonymous said...

Can Jake come out and play today Ms Day?

Anonymous said...

Dear Sbynews,

How about hitting the city with a continuing FOIA request for all documents and info on costs, etc. incurred by the city for what looks like a real financial fiasco for the taxpayers, and please keep the public posted about that because the Daily Times, Independent and TV/radio stations are not going to.

BTW how much is that woman that Day hired to run the festival being paid?

Anonymous said...

WE NEED JOBS AND INDUSTRY- NOT CULTURAL EVENTS! Someone please explain to me how this puts food on anybody's table except for the builders of the amphitheater!

Anonymous said...

Joe,

Ditto the comment at 9:01.

And please try to find out how much of a financial hole the Greensboro city and community is in after 3 years of this event, for both direct costs and related ones like overtime for fire/EMS and police, medical and hospital services, etc. My guess is that its north of $1 Million, probably a lot more than that.

If the city won’t disclose details voluntarily, there is probably a public information act that can be used.

Anonymous said...

Funny this article cites Richmond, VA considering that CITY's population is 220K in the city but 1.3 MILLION in its metro area. Plus several major corporations have their headquarters there. Philip Morris, Capital One, Carnax, plus a major pharmaceutical company.

Salisbury isn't even close to these numbers. There probably isn't even half this population in the Eastern Shore of MD/VA combine. Day's situation can't even begin to compete.

Anonymous said...

850 Wicomico needs to stay the hell out of it. This is all Day's deal and the county is not obligated to do squat. Culver needs to divorce Salisbury just like Salisbury has divorced Wicomico. Day didn't think that through very well.

Anonymous said...

Jack eats rainbows and moonbeams for breakfast, too. Why would other municipalities bother with this monsterous mess he and Day have gotten themselves into. No, other towns will be laughing because they know what a joke we have in our city government. Word gets around quick 831.

Anonymous said...

The real issue is now that we all know Salisbury can't handle this, to cancel will also cost big money. Day has screwed us all either way. Thanks to his gross incompetence and childish dreams which help no one!

Anonymous said...

Day flunked math. He's 1,270,000 people short 914.

Anonymous said...

If they refuse the FOIA requests contact the ACLU. They're already suing Salisbury for failing to comply with FOIAs.

Anonymous said...

821 you should add JOBS to your list here.

Anonymous said...

Day expects people to navigate the construction while fining festival goers for vaping and smoking. Maybe that's how he's planning to pay for year 2 & 3!

Anonymous said...

Think about 3rd Fridays. They are nice and all, but you notice the same people tend to show up for them. I have nothing against 3rd Friday but again, it doesn't put food on anybody table like a factory or a business would. The Folk Festival is just, at best, a giant 3rd Friday.

We call this place Thugsbury- well of course it is. The poor people around here NEED JOBS JAKE. They dont need a festival they probably cant afford to go to anyway.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Since it's the hotels, motels and restaurant & fast food joints that would profit from this farce, let them pony up the funds for it -- LOL.

And PRMC better get ready for the overflow of drug overdose and other things that will be coming to them because most won't have insurance.

September 21, 2017 at 8:27 AM

And, it will be a bonanza for drug dealers, but they won't "pony up" any money, and also for the bail bond firms.

Anonymous said...

8:50 said: Where would they actually hold this? In a parking lot? City park? We simply do not have the "green" space for such an event.

FYI, Day wants to turn the ballfield in City Park into a parking lot.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
will be interesting to see how much his buddies, including gillis, donate.

So, what about Perdue, where daddy Day runs things?

Anonymous said...

Since this post is important, please keep it at the top all day.

Anonymous said...

8:16 don't be ridiculous. Salisbury by no ones stretch of the imagination has the infrastructure to accommodate 30,000 extra people. This is the problem with you people who don't get off the shore. You live in a fantasy world you make up in your brainless heads.
For 1 Einstein Greensboro has 100 if not more hotels in the immediate area. This means people can leave their car parked and walk. They also have public transportation. There are many city owned parking lots and several private owned parking garages and areas. This means parking for over 10,000 vehicles in the immediate area something Salisbury does not have. Greensboro also have at least 6 high capacity highways into that city. Salisbury has 2 and they are hardly high capacity.

Anonymous said...

1004 the requirements from the festival people is parking for 70-80K not just 10K. Keep up with the class, kiddo.

Anonymous said...

The producers of this even must have checked out Salisbury before committing to a 3 year deal. They are experts. I would like to know why they think we could handle such
an event. We have no green area that could handle a crowd like they expect. There is no parking and no lodging. What is their agenda?

Anonymous said...

Towns pitch for these jobs so the show producers must have went off Day's word. You're making assumptions 1027.

Anonymous said...

When is parents weekend at SU? Hopefully NOT the same weekend as this Festival (local hotel rooms being booked).

If its held in Sept timeframe, maybe tap into/work with Ocean City for rooms??? It is after season at that time. I know I know, drunks on the road, but when has that stopped any other summertime week/weekend.

Someone commented on the Dew Tour. City FAIL ruined that venture because they weren't willing to pony up a few concessions the Dew Tour wanted ($$$$). OC receive FREE national/world advertising on TV/cable and hotel rooms AND restaurants were jammed each time the tour came (even during the weekdays). Dew Tour wanted to return, but OC complained about the last go around so close to July 4th and having to pony up some money. Everyone won, but OC wanted more. Talk about FAILURE!

Anyway, the Salisbury "fest" won't happen.

Anonymous said...

Well, Jakey boy wanted to bring Salisbury into the national spotlight and this plan is SURE to achieve that! Too bad it will be via news stories covering this disaster of biblical proportions. #SbyGOESviral #WeAreTheNewDanglingChad

Anonymous said...

I hope Culver refuses ANY help at all for the city. He should look Day dead in the eye and tell him “I’m going to be as cooperative as you were with the fire department fiasco”. Let Day handle ALL of this on his own. Day wanted to show his azz with the Station 13 situation. Well, don’t expect cooperation from Culver on this one.

Anonymous said...

June 5

Anonymous said...

Someone should contact the event producer and give them the true story about Salisbury.

National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA)
8757 Georgia Ave, Suite 450
Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA
Phone: 301-565-0654
Fax: 301-565-0472
Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern, M-F

General inquiries: info@ncta-usa.org

Anonymous said...

Culver should just keep the county completely separate from this mess and let Jake deal with the nightmare about to unfold regardless of whether or not the festival goes down. Either way, Salisbury will have to pony up a lot of money and it's on his watch. He is solely responsible and it will be remembered on Election Day since it's three months prior.

Anonymous said...

11:11 The Dew Tour used to do more tours a year. Had to scale down big time. No one wants the hassle and the massive amount of tax payer money spent for the few short term benefits. One of the few intelligent things the OC officials have done in the past few years was asking them to contribute more instead of the average resident who saw little if any benefits.

Anonymous said...

Perdue should start paying their slaughter house employees more so the tax payers are supplementing their incomes in the form of welfare benefits! They are one of the reasons for the major blight that is Salisbury. Those people can't afford much of anything and again tax payers are paying for them to survive. Figures Day is associated with such a place. He is as immoral as they are. Wouldn't survive if they weren't sucking off tax payers.

Anonymous said...

12:19 maybe they don't care. They probably couldn't find anyone dumb enough except for Day to agree to the festival.

Anonymous said...

8:16 please elaborate as to where 175000+ people will find accommodations in Salisbury without having to drive 30 miles away. Where will they park? Main Street where it's .50 an hour?

Anonymous said...

9:16 agree 100%.

Shed Guy said...

Already started the parking lot. Wonder if the state environmental folks approved this parking lot right next to the river and how is the runoff going to be handled in an area that floods on a regular basis.

Anonymous said...

Here, Jake, sign this 3 million dollar contract. When you find out it will cost you 4 million and back out, you still owe me half.

Jake: "Okay!"

Anonymous said...

Culver needs to listen to his taxpayers. We want NO part of this disaster! Let Day fail on his own.

Anonymous said...

Please move to top. Thank you.

JoeAlbero said...

3:08, I made this a "Featured Post" on the top left hand side. Quit your bellyaching.

Anonymous said...


Prediction: Jake will be practicing ventriloquism because we know what to expect if his lips are moving!

Anonymous said...

Too bad the event wont be held during August when there are a ton of vacancies from missing students.

Anonymous said...

"...the festival costs about $2.3 million to produce."

Where is the $2.3 million coming from in Salisbury?

Anonymous said...

Publishers Notes: Is Mayor Day telling us the truth about Salisbury's financial commitment?

===

Why would you even call him Mayor Day?

#NotMyMayor

Anonymous said...

Sounds to me that Greensboro, NC is more than glad to get rid of this Folk Festival.

Anonymous said...

I could have sworn Jake Day said it was going to bring 250,000 people to Salisbury? Where did that figure come from when this article says only 100,000.

Anonymous said...

I have to assume that the this event will be held in the county , I can't think of a place large enough for it in the city limits. Having said that
I'm sure that the county council(Cannon) has already given the OK and approval
to his friend Jake. This will be a costly event for the county tax payers and will be a hush hush until they drum up some ridiculous excuse for it. So sad to see our government go to the left and call themselves conservatives and republicans. Oh well it your city and your county eat crap and bark at the moon.
Thanks for the privilege to comment and give my opinion.

I forgot to mention something very important , why are the city leaders focusing on this crap and not the crime ? Take your blinders off and read between the lines. ( I already know the answer to that , do you?)
answer is : they don't know what to do! Amazing isn't it ?

Anonymous said...

The crime problem is ridiculously simple. Take the funding for all Jake day bullshit, the mike Dunn bullshit, a lot it to your city county law enforcement agencies and flood the city county with police presence for awhile. Nothing makes criminals more uncomfortable than seeing police everywhere they look, just like cockroaches turn the light on and they scatter. Most importantly though you need leaders that support their LEO community and have their backs not selling them out.

Anonymous said...

7:49 AM Why not focus on crime? Because according to Jake we don't have a crime problem. We only PERCEIVE that we have a crime problem.

Anonymous said...

White people need to boycott all of Jake's festivals he doesn't have your back he wants your money.

Anonymous said...

Will this festival take place? We shall see.