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| Image of the Virginia Folk Music Festival 2016 |
By Thornton Crowe
As of late, there's been many rumors swirling about revenue projections for this insidious Folk Music Festival. They are unrealistic figures but ones designed to hoodwink you, the voters, into believing this event will save Salisbury's economy while providing a fun time for all. Just how much fun will be if the projected 200K visitors come to the area for a seventy-two hour stint?
Imagine the traffic alone and you'll be on Travelocity booking your escape.
In reality, periodic events only promote irritation for locals along with temporary jobs, which is not what the area needs because it doesn't replace gainful employment with benefits. There seems to be a grave disconnect between the minds at City Hall and the reality of the citizens who put them there - so why do you keep voting for these pie-in-the-sky thinkers? Do you really think they are in tune with you based on a few fancy schmancy words they utter at some political meet & greet?
Reality dictates in downtown real estate alone, there is no area for this event to be executed correctly. There's no room for event vendors, tour buses, venue stages, parking for the masses (90K), hotel accommodations for visitors and talent along with everything else involved for such an event.
Apparently, some outside our local government have participated in bamboozling the event's national selection committee into believing the City has the capacity when it clearly doesn't have a clue of how to plan such an event. Therefore, the national promoter has been scammed as much as local citizens.
The Folk Music Festival, in reality, will do nothing more than tarnish our area's reputation once word gets out to all promoters. Local leadership doesn't seem to understand the music promotion business is relatively small and everyone shares their experiences with others. Once the word gets out, it's toxic to any area receiving bad reviews. This will make an impact on the Civic Center's ability to bid for shows - and it's not in a positive way!
Honestly hope they prove me wrong but....
In short, Salisbury cannot handle this festival and the whole ordeal just makes the City look more ridiculous and inept than ever before. While it should be telling to witness the spectacle unfold, smart citizens will probably bail for the three-day blowout as it will no doubt metamorphose into an incubus of criminality, mismanagement, embarrassment and upheaval, which Salisbury will be left to clean up for years to come.
UPDATE:
In response to 3:21PM's comment about the mess left by Woodstock crowd. Here is an image of the debris left behind. Is this what will happen to Salisbury next September?
There is no shape or form of reality that comes out of Jake days actions or words
ReplyDeleteWhen is this festival to take place. What month yr. Day
DeleteThis will be a nightmare for locals.
ReplyDeleteComparing Dover to Salisbury is like comparing a lime to a watermelon. There's the big disconnect. Moron!
ReplyDeleteAlso just think about the terrorist opportunity here, could be another Las Vegas, or Cedar Creek only this time the bombs go off!
ReplyDeleteThey should have it at the Shore bird or county stadium
ReplyDeleteI can't even imagine the level of chaos that Salisbury is about to endure with this nonsense. Day and the city of Salisbury can't even maintain order now let alone when you cut 200,000 loose on Salisbury
ReplyDeleteI certainly think this will be a challenge, but the reality is during the week when businesses are open, we have almost 150,000 people coming in to the city. So, we aren’t that far off from being able to manage 200,000 people.
ReplyDeleteHotels are a serious concern, as people will not want to be driving 45 minutes to an hour to get here. But, Ocean City can handle that kind of capacity and the fall is a great time to spend in Ocean City. So, I think that could be a nice experience for visitors, although I agree, driving from Ocean City is a bit of a hassle for a one-day visit to festival.
Parking is probably the biggest concern. So I think they are going to need to work with shore transit to make sure there are enough buses that run frequently to get people from parking locations into the city.
But again, these numbers aren’t too explosive from what we see during the weekday. So I think if it is running well the city can pull it off.
And that of course is the $64,000 question – can the city run it correctly?
1024 you forget Day hired a novice with no experience to manage this soiree. You really think it will be run correctly?
ReplyDeleteThere's no way Salisbury can pull this off but it will be fascinating to watch for sure.
ReplyDelete1003 Day pissed off the county with recent garbage taunts. Do you really think they'll help the old mayor out of his pickle? Would you if he was shi* talking about you constantly?
ReplyDeleteYou're asking the same people who believed in the new water treatment plant and all the other garbage pushed by the so-called leadership for years to believe this will be a success? LOL. If these people were that bright they wouldn't have people like Ireton or Day as mayor in the first place. See my point?
ReplyDeleteIt won't happen.
ReplyDeleteNegative economic impact on Salisbury hasn't even been measured or considered but isn't this the way Day rolls? He takes money from Fire and Police (the people meant to help with issues created by large crowds) and piles it into a person who has zero experience to manage this disaster. Sounds like a recipe for success to me.
ReplyDeleteThe festival is a joke. Day and his idiot jakettes can't pull this off but it will be damn fun watching them try.
ReplyDeleteHey Jake? Why not have a crime festival! Seems like we are the pillar of maryland for that. Offer free country clubs and some curry goat and skrimp But set it up at the end of the month so the mongrels will be hungry.Winners can reside on waterfront next to brew river for a year
ReplyDeleteBet the $$ Jake just scammed out of the DOJ for women will be used for this stupid festival. Isn't that criminal behavior?
ReplyDeleteThe folk festival is such a niche market who really expects most of the locals to appreciate or enjoy this. Oh, wait, look at the Seagull Century thing, not a ton of locals participate but every year the community must endure it under the guise that it makes Salisbury money. Leaders around here really give a hoot about their voters, don't they? They think nothing of inconveniencing the entire community for a minority of people.
ReplyDeleteThere are a ton of locals.. hardcore cyclist to “just get out and ride types” that participate in the Seagull. You should be proud that close to 100 cyclist traveled all the way from LA to visit your squat of a town Salisbury. (myself a current citizen) So you can’t get a table at Applebee’s one weekend out of the year. You should try to find a way to support it.
DeleteIt's an idea. It's just too big for this venue now. That's not to say we couldn't host something and possibly something on this scale one day but this plan is a little grandiose for a first run. We could have and do things here. It's not all bad. There are a lot of good people here. We just can't be so impulsive and expect everything to change without everyone being on board and heard.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Sea Gull Century the only time it gets attention in the regional media is when someone participating is killed! Flee this city & go to the nearest state of lower taxes!
ReplyDeleteAt the rate the downtown street repairs are going it will be another 3 years before it s done.
ReplyDeleteDover would be a better place for this folk festival. They can hold it at the same place they throw the Delaware County Fair. Salisbury can't hold 30,000 people, much less 200,000. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteI still want to know were the .7 million dollars is going to come from that the promoters want to put on this festival. Is it being paid up front? It's my understanding that Governor Hogan has said the state won't anti up and money. While all the discussion has been about the actual lack of infrastructure to handle such an event there has been little or no mention of the up front coasts to Da-bury. Joe do you know where we can get this information. Do any of the readers of this blog know the answers? It is my opinion the city won't be able to pony up the funds and the promoters will look else where for a location.
ReplyDelete208: it's $700K per YEAR not one time. Three years comes to $2.1M the city will have to front for this stupidity. If they fail to pay it, not only will there be no show, the city will still have pay this as a form of damages. Day has dug a very deep hole on this one.
ReplyDelete"208: it's $700K per YEAR not one time. Three years comes to $2.1M the city will have to front for this stupidity."
ReplyDeleteHow many homeless people will that money feed or house next winter?
He's already got $350,000 of it from the DOJ because he scammed them into thinking he'd use it on Violence towards Women. Remember?
There must be an accounting that the money was used for violence towards women. Need to keep eye on it.
DeleteOh you bet that DOJ money is going to the festival. Every dime they get between now and next September will go towards it. Don't kid yourselves.
ReplyDelete1024-2, 150,000 people? Really? Think your numbers are way off. Nice try, Jake!
ReplyDeleteWhat are the Festival Dates? I gotta plan my vacation. Out of town!
ReplyDelete302 beginning of September. If you take two weeks at the beginning of September you're bound to hit the sweet spot and won't be here for the big train wreck.
ReplyDeleteThere's no where near 150,000 people in downtown on any given business day. What is 1024 smoking?
ReplyDeleteCheck with the locals at Woodstock NY as to what was left when the party left.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, the promoters for Woodstock were almost as naive as the Day klan. They had no idea what they were doing and it ended up being a real disaster for them. There were countless rapes and theft during the concerts and when the portapotties spilled over and the food shortages began, the whole scenario went from bad to much worse. This is what we're headed towards considering Jake doesn't even have any experience with this type of event. I'm outta town that weekend because I'll make sure of it!
ReplyDeleteJakester wasn't around for Woodstock. He'll have to relearn the lesson already learned then and taxpayers will pay for his education.
ReplyDeleteJake's just providing his favorite citizens a new revenue stream. Plenty of potential pickpocket and rape victims in a festival crowd of out of towners.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the update: Kind of looks like parts of present day Bury.
ReplyDelete3:21 here......pretty sight isn't it? And that was before the drugs of today....and the number of guns as of today.
ReplyDelete10:24 So you think 150,000 people come into Salisbury everyday? What the hell are you talking about? Are you really saying that the number of people who come to Salisbury everyday is 4 times the population? That may be the dumbest thing I ever heard. Just where are all these people going?
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ReplyDeleteThey need 800 volunteers. From where are they coming. Maybe they are needed to clean up all the mess.
Salisbury's problem is that most of the residents are Democrats so there is a democrat administration. The uninformed residents just blindly follow behind anyone with a D after their name. The so called Folk Music Festival might just be their undoing though as an awful lot of Salisbury folks are not into that kind of music.
ReplyDeleteMaybe our only hope is when the good mayor doesn't have funds to front this event, they will repo the town. Hopefully with new ownership the place will have a chance for good management and clean the swamp, I mean hood. Something that has been missing for many, many decades.
ReplyDeleteLewd behavior, drinking, nudity and public fornication. We don't need a Woodstock here. I remember Chickenstock. What a success that was !
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what smallsbury already looks like?
ReplyDeleteWho do you know that really listens to "Folk Music??"
ReplyDeleteDon't know anyone who listens to it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"the reality is during the week when businesses are open, we have almost 150,000 people coming in to the city."
That Anonymous (Jake Day?) is an idiot. And most of those that come into the city only go the the malls and shopping mecca on Route 13, north.
Woodstock revisited !!!
ReplyDeleteSalisbury NEEDS to hire JOE ALBERO and the SBYNEWS STAFF to SAVE the city from this festival!!!!!!!! The SOONER the BETTER!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete7:41, LMAO! Like I would have any interest at all. No, I will sit back and watch the whole thing fall flat on its face and garnish national attention and disgrace. Nope, this is Jake's baby and all his day care 3rd floor staff.
ReplyDelete