TBW Daily Diary

Bryan MacLeod celebrated his birthday today; wife Jaime was distressed because the gifts she had ordered on line were not delivered for the event as promised . . . Dr. Bob Coldren and Jack Barnett back from a few weeks on Cape Cod . . . Sorry to report that Joe Theurer fell at home and broke his collar bone . . . Friends have gathered tonight to celebrate Janet Foreman's retirement . . . Eric and Joanne are celebrating six-months of marriage . . . Filming has been completed on the entire Harry Potter saga; the three stars are wondering where their careers go from here . . . Some have wondered about the lack of police and fire reports which used to pepper these posts. Last fall our emergency agencies quietly shifted to digital communications rendering our scanner obsolete. In addition, the police department scrambled several of its channels to befuddle the bad guys, so to buy new equipment would be foolish . . .

Beating a dead horse . . .

The Patriot-News editorial today was a defensive move of sorts aimed at quelling criticism of its sponsorship of ArtsFest where, for the first time in its more than 40-year history, an admission fee was charged. (It graciously did not mention that it did not know of the charge when it agreed again to be the sponsor.) I was not the only one disgruntled by this effort to whitewash a situation full of unanswered questions; the comments on PennLive were sometimes vehement and those I pose here are questions others are asking as well . . . An effort to “justify” the charge by comparing our free event to others which charge is pretty lame. In its current format even with a well-paid staff ArtsFest has not been a money loser. Vendor and artists’ fees and sponsorships have more than covered the costs with nothing but the location being free. Security details—in the past the city police—and city trash hauling have always been in the budget and paid for. Why these costs suddenly require an admission has not been satisfactorily explained . . . For myself, I am primarily interested in the attendance; in the past Parks & Recreation has estimated 265,000. The ArtsFest group has even suggested a much greater figure when looking for vendors. This year’s report of 20,000 attendees (hailed as a great success though a 20% drop from previous years) really doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. (And, yes, I have heard that Mayor Thompson sneaked in the exit without paying.) Someone needs to step forward and explain. The editorial did nothing to illuminate . . . Okay, sure, I was one of the original founders of the Greater Harrisburg Arts Council and involved in the very first festival of 1968 and several beyond that. And, yes, that first year—a week long—was a disaster thanks to heavy rains for most of the events. Costs were underwritten by the Greater Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce . . . 1969 was the banner beginning and a much larger undertaking than the festival today. Everything was driven by volunteers—local Boy Scout troops were “on KP” to cart away the trash, for instance. The cost? $2000 provided by AMP, the State Museum being our free venue . . . I am an old fart frequently suffering from bouts of nostalgia but still feisty enough to complain when a community asset like the festival becomes greedy (and exclusive) for no reason. I am looking forward to an accounting of the distribution of the “surplus” funds to local arts groups as the ArtsFest organization promised. Even if they give away a million dollars I doubt that I will be happy . . . And I bet that next year every supplier will be upping its rates since there is “new” money to be shared . . . Click picture to enlarge and notice "without charge" . . .