Summer events gain cash cachet in tight times

Welcome to the summer fairs and festival season in the Northwest, a time when people emerge from winter hibernation (which, around here, lasts until about July 3), enjoy some sun and fresh air, see friends and neighbors, renew a sense of community – and oh yeah, maybe make some money.

The commercial aspect of all the events that weigh down the calendar from now until Labor Day might not be evident. Few organizers would say that financial considerations are a prime motivator for putting on such flings; other than those that hope to raise money for some charitable cause, most are happy if they can come close to covering their expenses.

But there are several important business aspects to these events that will become increasingly significant.

The business angles start with the communities themselves, most of whom are grappling with financial squeezes, leaving them wondering whether they can continue to commit money and resources to organizing, operating, marketing and sponsoring such events.

They’re not cheap, what with expenses for basic services such as traffic and crowd control and garbage removal, not to mention whatever local government kicks in for entertainment and promotion. Volunteer help, which is often considerable, only carries you so far.

But communities also know there is economic benefit to those events. Some of it is tangible, in the form of keeping spending at home and drawing in a few dollars that might otherwise be spent at the next town’s Rutabaga Festival (thanks to the miracle of the Internet, we checked – there are in fact several rutabaga festivals in this country, although none, so far as we can tell, in Washington, so that’s available if you want to start a community event and fear all the good ideas are taken).

Local events have a particular appeal for families who, between high fuel prices and a bad economy, would prefer to stay close to home.

But communities know there are intangible benefits. Being known as the home of the Rutabaga Festival is a way to build community pride and address the dreaded “there’s nothing to do around here” complaint that can, over time, erode a community’s image. It’s a way of establishing a community brand. If visitors have a good time and like what they see, they might be inclined to come back, or consider moving themselves or their business there.

Thus the challenge for cash-strapped local governments is figuring out what image promotion and burnishing is worth and how much they can afford to pay for it.

It’s not just government, though, that’s paying for these events. Business kicks in with sponsorship dollars as well as rental fees paid for booths and displays.

There’s plenty of entrepreneurial activity in evidence at these events, from the food vendors (some touring, some locally based) to the Tupperware, back-pain relief and Mary Kay merchants, to the artists and craftsmen and women.

It’s not just smaller businesses that are catching on to the marketing power of fairs and festivals. At last week’s Kent Cornucopia Days, a maker of packaged hummus deployed a force of representatives to hand out sample tubs of the product almost faster than attendees could grab them. Setting up such a display wasn’t cheap. But businesses trying to figure out the new landscape of media may decide that face-to-face marketing at a festival is at least as effective as a broad advertising campaign.

The festival as marketing venue might not be an objective of event organizers, but if it gets money in the bank and visitors on the street (who doesn’t like a freebie?), then that could be a way to achieve a much more significant goal – being financially viable enough to put on a 2012 Rutabaga Festival.

Bill Virgin is editor and publisher of Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News. He can be reached at bill.virgin@yahoo.com.