RECENT COMMENTS
last year for Italian Festival?
richmond.com takes takes a look at this weekend’s Italian Festival and breaks the news this might be the last year in the neighborhood for the event.
From the article:
However, this may be Richmonders’ last opportunity to enjoy the festival within the city limits. According to DiPofi, escalating administrative costs from revised city policies may mean the festival is in the market for a new location.
[…]
Three Italian-American organizations in Richmond, the Italian-American Business & Professional Societa, Italian-American Cultural Association and the Giuseppe Verdi Lodge – Sons of Italy, come together once again to host Richmond’s Original Italian Festival, which is being held from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30.
Can anything be done to prevent the Italian festival from relocating?
I wonder what the administrative costs are? I know you need a permit and there are other expected fees for any street festival. Are there new additional fees now associated with these activities? The article was very vague about the new costs.
What I am betting is: now the St. John’s is no longer sponsoring it, the new sponsors simply want to move it to different location closer to where they are located. And all three sponsors, Italian-American Business & Professional Societa, Italian-American Cultural Association, and the Giuseppe Verdi Lodge – Sons of Italy, are located in far outside the city in the neighboring counties.
I served on the Italian Commission in charge of the Festival for the first 2 years. My understanding is the group choose to look for other venues for 2008 has really nothing to do with St. John’s but more with the City of Richmond. Wilder has created a new special events committee or counsel that works with groups putting on events within the city. There are some additional hoops to jump through which are debatable but the main issue is in this case they submitted all their paper work in July and the city was not going to issue approval until Sept. 17th. Since the festival takes place Sept. 29th & 30th its not a lot of notice to secure an additional site if not approved.
Then the group was notified that they would basically need to triple their security which gets pretty costly. There have been no security violations previously so there was no real understanding as to what this increase was necessary. This group donates a portion to multiple non-profit groups, charities and scholarship funds and why does the City need more.
The final large factor is the number of neighborhood complaints regarding music, drinking, parking, etc. Since I live in the neighborhood I think that last part is silly but you would be surprised how many they received. I see it as a positive event for the neighborhood and it is one of the more family oriented happenings in the city. I realize many disagree so to each their own. I plan on supporting the festival and I hope others in the area will as well – maybe if we show support and tell them to stay there might be a change of heart.
Where we live, we are in no way directly impacted by any of the events or festivals that occur in the area. With that said, I *love* that they all happen. I like being able to walk a few blocks and eat food and hear music and stuff.
“The final large factor is the number of neighborhood complaints regarding music, drinking, parking, etc. ”
And yet many people turned Black Sunday into a racial issue. HUH?
The City is only supportive of festivals as long as you pay and pay huge fees to them for nothing. They dictate what you must do and you pay fee after fee to plump them up – didn’t this happen in the 1920’s. If the City persist soon there won’t be a community festival left in the city. All of them will move out to the counties and the emerging neighborhoods, ethnic pride, and community events will all die a slow and sad deaths.
What are the huge fees? I have worked closely with the Irish Festival and there are fees, as is expected with an event that requires streets to be shut down, but I am unaware of these new large fees.
If I understand Loz2Hi correctly, the large fee that the Italian festival was hit with was actually last minute security costs. That and the other issues so well articulated in that entry explains why there may be problems with the keeping the Festival here.
I don’t think community events are going to die slow deaths. I am sad to hear that sort of cynicism.
Tiny – I am sorry you were saddened by my cynicism -but the truth hurts sometimes. I live in this community and would love for events such as this to continue to take place throughout the year. The new security costs were due to the fact the City Committee I discussed earlier (put in place to deal with festivals/events in the city) required that we use off duty police officers. In the past the festival was allowed to use off duty sheriff officers – which was significantly cheaper. They were also instructed that the # of officers needed to be doubled.
Laz2Hi – Could you be more specific as to what this “City Committee” is? In others words, who are it’s members, who is it’s chair, under what department does it operate — that type of thing.
Thank you.
I would really hate to lose the Italian Festival to the Burbs,and I can’t believe the City leaders would celebrate the lost visitation and visibility. Isn’t there something we can do to save the celebration of all things Italian for the City and our neighborhood?
One fee is for off-police to provide security. They require off-duty officers at $30.00/hr for a 4 hour minimum based on your projected crowd. In the case of CHA’s attempt to have wine at Godspeed Event on Libby Hill the city said we needed 6 officers and a supervisor for a wine garden with five tables. The off-duty officers could have held hands while I paid them over $1000.00 – which wipes you out. But the real question is where are the on-duty police? Their answer is they will try to provide some help but you cannot assume it will be there – and there is no way they would send 6 of them unless there was a riot. So there is a real double standard – what you have to do as a citizen and what they have to do as servants of the citizens…..really??!! I give them months notice of the event and I put up barriers and I check ID’s and I monitor consumption rates … and maybe one or two of them will drop by for a patrol? So, I am doing all the work and still paying for both on and off duty police too???
Now don’t get me started on the health department’s requirements for permits to sell food or ABC license for alcohol… All of which are perfuctatory and bureaucratic fees.
I can’t believe I’m going to say this …
I can totally understand where the city is coming from on this. The off-duty cops are there for crowd control, not to police alcohol consumption. With a big crowd, the festival is creating a potential for ne’er-do-wells to make mischief. That creates a burden that is fairly borne by the festival and the organizers and should not take away police coverage from elsewhere in the city.
The only point of contention I can see is whether the city should accept other officers (sherriff’s deputies, for example).
Trust me, I understand your frustration; everytime you turn around, someone is trying to get more money out of you, but on the flip side of that- The Police can’t guarantee or commit On duty patrol because they could be on an emergency call and do need to patrol their assigned area. As far as the health department’s food permits, you will have that in the Suburbs as well. I’m sure you have checked it out; Fees for Police, ABC and Health Department’s requirements could be less.
I will be surprised if it is cheaper to do this festival in the Counties – all of the police and health requirements are going to be the same. And I bet the crowd would be smaller.
Italian Festival – we in the City will miss you if you leave for pastures that may not be so green.
is your festival held at different times each year? is it always at the same place? I’m interested in bringing a group over.
thanks for your response
tc
This year the festival will be in early October.
http://www.richmonditalianfestival.com/