27 replies to this topic

[john]

Crazy big this year, pumpkin total was 800+. Intel brought in 534 with the carveathon...
Our goal is to get sponsorship to pay for the cost of shutting the street down next year! We knew the crowd was huge, which is a great problem to have!

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

That's great, John. Is that the most pumpkins you've ever had?

[john]

Easily. I think pumpkins and attendance doubled this year.

[OceanGirl]

We brought the kids down this year- been wanting to check
it out for a couple years now. We loved it!! Thanks
John!!

Hey- were the t-shirts sold out or do you know
if there are any left? We had no cash with us!!

Thanks again! We all had a great night!

[john]

We have a few XL's left but that's it!
Glad to hear the great feedback. Long but rewarding day!

[ducky]

I didn't get to go, but I did drop a pumpkin off about 4:00. The Intel pumpkins were really cute. The pumpkin runners looked busy. I'm glad it's so popular and it was a good night for you. It's awesome Intel got involved.

[Redone]

"The night of 2000 kids" is more like it.

[Mikko]

Crazy big this year, pumpkin total was 800+. Intel brought in 534 with the carveathon...
Our goal is to get sponsorship to pay for the cost of shutting the street down next year! We knew the crowd was huge, which is a great problem to have!

[olivia]

My daughter can't go to the night event. I hope there will be some pumpkins to come and look at this morning.

[Mikko]

I went this year as well and I was a great turn out. How much do you need to shut down the street? I think that everyone should think of the kids safety and it would only be for 4 hours. Also I got there at 6:00 and left at 7:20 and I didn't see any shows being played on the big screen, all I saw was a big crowd of people hanging around over there waiting for something to happen while someone was on a microphone squawking about a bunch of political stuff instead of just play the movies that the kids wanted to see. I can't wait till next year....

[4thgenFolsomite]

it costs a fair amount to close the street. it has to be posted 72 hours in advance, you need to get a special permit from the city/police dept., plus the costs of extra traffic control, etc. The question is...how do you generate the funds from the event to pay for the costs. Vendors? Street food? then it becomes a carnival or a night party. might not be the same as the cute trick or treating event followed by the movie and other fun kiddie activities down on the railroad plaza. that will take some thinking....

[Steve Heard]

The question is...how do you generate the funds from the event to pay for the costs. Vendors? Street food? then it becomes a carnival or a night party. might not be the same as the cute trick or treating event followed by the movie and other fun kiddie activities down on the railroad plaza. that will take some thinking....

That is a dilemma that a lot of small events face, how to pay for it while keeping the spirit of the event alive.

Often there is resistance to having vendors, but people will spend money and stay longer if they can get something to eat and/or drink.

I remember in the early days of Folsom Live, when folks didn't want it advertised and didn't want it to become an event that would bring in people from outside of Folsom (aka people with money looking for a place to spend it).

There's always been resistance to having vendors at the Summer concerts in the park, and now because of lack of funds, it looks like we won't be having any more concerts.

You can have vendors without it getting out of hand. Just don't let them sell tequila shots.

[SacKen]

The event was great but I was once again reminded of how terrible the Sutter St redesign was. I think that street is even worse with crowds now than it was before the changes. Seems like a lot of wasted potential just to keep bi-directional traffic along with on-street parking.

A street closure is a must for next year! I heard a lot of people comment that "this is crazy" and it's "not worth it". Mostly because of the battle on the walkways. Opening the street would alleviate a lot of that since only the Trick or Treaters would need to be on the walkway.

I'm actually surprised it is so difficult to get the street closed. In the past, it seemed like they closed it all the time for events. So I'm surprised to hear that the cost and process is rather prohibitive.

Oh, and "eff you" to the perv that kept standing on the bench pretending to do something so you could look down the opening of the cover while my wife was nursing. You're lucky I wasn't there at the time or we would have been testing the Sutter St. redesign regarding access to emergency vehicles.