Beyond the South End

 

BY TED SYLVESTER

Seafoods Festival money-loser

This column gives Ted’s opinion of the 1983 Seafoods Festival as the Lobster Festival was called then. The 1983 festival was the 36^th year of the event. This year was the 67^th. Evidentially it wasn’t a good year for the annual event.

 

If there were any doubts last week that the annual Maine Seafoods Festival was a success, the revenue figures released earlier this week erased any misconceptions. Financially, it was a flop.

Unless the final tally shows a big reduction in expenses—the chances of this are almost assuredly nil—the festival will lose money for the third straight year.

Last year, officials decried the lack of local support. They said that unless the community was willing to chip in and help, the future of the 36-year old festival was doomed.

It was our observation that the community, in fact, turned its back on the event. About the only local dollars spent at the festival were at the carnival. We suspect that the carnival made some money over the weekend. And they took it with them when they left town.

What’s happened?

For one thing, in years past, the festival was conceived and used by lobster dealers as an outlet for unwanted, cheap, shedder lobsters. No more. Shedders are a marketable item that restaurants grab up to feature on their menus. And they sell them as cheap, or cheaper, as they are sold at the festival. The festival can’t compete.

Then there is the insistence upon sameness in presentation of the festival. The 1983 version is similar to the setup and format of 30 years ago. People are tired of the same old thing, year after year.

We were raked over the coals last year for criticizing the festival, and especially for blasting the poor quality of food items, namely fried clams. We were challenged to become involved as volunteer help, instead of standing back and finding fault. We accepted the suggestion and this year, volunteered to judge parade floats and work in the friend clam and shrimp booth.

We can tell you from being on the inside that things were worse than we thought. It was total chaos as far as the food booth was concerned. The fryers were constantly broken down, and when they did work, the quality of the clams left much to be desired. Some people brought their clams back for a refund. We didn’t blame them. They were terrible. Our impressions of last year have not changed. We will say that the shrimp was good they are easier to handle.

I hate to think that summer visitors went home with a bad impression of one of our choicest seafood delicacies, friend clams. But no matter how hard you try, you cannot turn out a good product using frozen, breaded clams that are prepared in antiquated, malfunctioning fryers and are tough or practically raw, mealy and tasteless.

Other observations we made found some bad things, but also found many good things. The parade, for instance, was excellent, one of the best in years. Of course, there’s nothing like offering $1,000 in prize money as an incentive to enter floats. The entrants turned out and produced some attractive and interesting floats.

The entertainment by the Country Wranglers was superb. It was disappointing, however, to see that the crowd was sparse. Most of those attending were local folks who knew the band and its qualities. But, let’s face it; if you want to attract a big crowd, you have to offer a big name. We went to the Bangor Fair and saw Louise Mandrell. There had to be 10,000 people jammed into the grandstand and racetrack for the 50-minute performance.

We’re not saying the festival has to pay out the kind of bucks necessary for a Louise Mandrell, but you get the idea.

Staging fireworks once again was a nice touch. But we can’t really agree that the brief 15-minute showing was worth the $2,200 cost. Can you? And wasn’t it ironic that the purpose of the fireworks was to draw people to the grounds so you could sell them clam and shrimp dinners, but the booth never opened because the fryers were busted? And the street dance scheduled to be held before the fireworks was a dud. The band showed up more than two hours late, played for 30 minutes, and left.

We avoided the Friday night pageant. After listening to the same thing for more than 30 years, it was just too much to take anymore. Our spies tell us that this year was no different. Same procedure, different faces.

We enjoyed the lobster pot and sardine packing contests, although it was difficult to see what was going on in either event from the available vantage spots. We want to congratulate Rita Willey, the Muhammed Ali of sardine packers. We expect that she will be the undisputed champ forever, because we don’t believe the event will be held again. The sponsors would not have held it this year if they did not have the opportunity for national exposure from the Real People television show. They don’t give a damn about the contest, only the publicity it can bring them.

It was obvious to us that the crowds were down this year. Officials kept extolling about how successful the event was. But the proof was in the revenues. They were less than last year.

So what about the future?

We can’t blame festival directors if they say to hell with the whole thing. They worked hard to try to bring a profitable event to Rockland, and perhaps make some money for the community’s benefit. All they got was grief and very little support from the townfolk.

What are the alternatives?

We believe that if the festival is to continue and prosper, directors are going to have to change their philosophies. First, they need some professional advice on promotion. The press releases this year were some of the worst we have ever seen. Every chairman was left to promote his or her own activity. None of them did a very good job at it. Locally, most of the media took the time to rewrite and present information on events. But what about out-of-town media? We bet that if they received any information at all, it went into the round file.

The Chamber of Commerce and festival officials got into a tug of war over publicity, instead of working together. Each put out independent brochures. If the festival is ever going to survive, there will have to be a combined effort with people in the community. The chamber is the ideal catalyst. Those people know what promotion means to an event, and they know how to do it.

We have had more than one person ask us this week if the festival could survive without a carnival. The answer, obviously, is that it cannot under the current setup. The carnival pays the festival $14,000 just to set up. If it were not for this money, the festival would have gone broke a long time ago.

Many have expressed a desire that the festival should be more of what a festival is supposed to be—family fun, events, contests and games. Others think that more emphasis should be placed upon crafts and craftsworkers. One suggested that a boat show would be a nice addition. Another thought a firemen’s muster would attract local people, and be fun.

The only way there could be such a format change is, again, community involvement. There is no reason there could not be an off-season fund-raiser to help defray some of the expenses. How about combining with the chamber for a second auction during the year? Also, why should the out-of-town carnies come here and reap the cream from the top? As far as games are concerned, there’s no reason the festival or clubs and organizations could not manufacture their own game booths. How difficult would it be to set up some wooden bottles and get some baseballs? Just about any of the games offered by the carnival this year could be reproduced.

There also is the feasibility of bringing in a big-name entertainment star as a draw. Officials keep saying they can’t do this, because they can’t charge admission to the grounds, because of the private businesses located within the perimeter. But they could cordon off a bigger area in front of the stage and charge $5 or so a head for a seat. We would gladly pay it to see a top act.

Probably none of these things will happen. We believe directors are discouraged from the lack of support they have received and the financial losses. They likely will give it up. And that will be too bad.

From The Bangor Daily News, August 13-14, 1983.