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Show How to throw an intimate party for 80,000 by Nan Chalat According to the 1980 census there are about 2,850 official residents in Park City. Unofficial, but probably probab-ly more accurate estimates, suggest that there are 4,000 of us Parkites. Now, what would happen if one weekend every one of us invited 20 friends over for a few drinks and maybe a cruise up Main Street? You would have a mess that's what would happen. But if it were carefully planned and there was lots of music and interesting people and beautiful things to look at, it might be a good time. In fact, you just might call it an Art Festival. At last count 81,372 visitors had passed through the entry gates by Sunday evening. That tally does not include a multitude of staff members and volunteers who helped to keep the fesitval running smoothly. And now that they have all gone home and Main Street has miraculously returned re-turned to normal, it is time to sit back and mull over how the 14th Annual Park City Art Festival stacked up against its predecessors. The general consensus seems to be that the event was a success. "A number of the artists told me that they sold more last Saturday than they had both days of the festival last year," commented com-mented Festival Director SeanToomey. "It was a lot of hard work," commented Police Chief Frank Bell on behalf of the 13 members of the Park City Police Department who worked 12-hour shifts throughout the weekend. "But I think it worked fairly well. On the whole the crowd was very mellow." Bell added that other than quelling a few loud parties and trying to work out small conflicts with local merchants, mer-chants, there were none of the problems which are often associated with large crowds. "The guy wearing the live boa (constrictor) raised a few eyebrows though," he added. "I couldn't believe how great the volunteers were," said local artist Chris Geer. "They kept coming by offering offer-ing to booth-sit and to get change." receive any direct funding from the city. "I think the community is getting a great deal," he said. "Last year the city received $5,000 just from the sales taxes collected col-lected from the artists, and that doesn't include any of the other business generated by the festival." Most observers agreed that the transportation to and from Main Street was excellent. The buses were handled by Park City Transit under Kae Draper's direction direc-tion and they were coordinated co-ordinated by Park City Transportation Services, to midnight all weekend. In the past, the congestion in Old Town has made locals cringe. This year there were very few traffic problems in Old Town. Leaving Main Street closed Saturday night, according ac-cording to both Bell and Toomey, worked well enough to continue next year. "I think we proved that leaving the street closed didn't hurt business," said Toomey after observing hour-long lines at most of the eating establishments on Main Street Saturday night. "It was certainly a lot easier for expectations, Festival Directors Direc-tors Sean Toomey, Gary Sanders and Andy Monaco did not take the week off following the festival. By Monday, Monaco had taken down and stored all of the food booth and stage materials. Sanders spent Monday answering phone calls, most of which were requests for artists names and addresses by visitors who had trouble deciding what to purchase in the thick of the weekend. Toomey had already begun outlining next year's festival. "It will be the 15th annual festival is that some animals disguised as people ripped off $1,000 worth of banners off the street. I couldn't believe it. We put a lot of work into those banners and we were hoping to use them for years to come," said Toomey. The only other problem, he noted, was when the city garbage truck attempted to swing down Main Street at 7:00 p.m. Saturday evening. The street was far from empty. Revelers were just winding down from a rollicking rollick-ing performance by the Ririe Woodbury Dance Company and the artists' booths were still attracting crowds of onlookers. Like a bull in a china shop, the garbage truck was finally coerced (very carefully) back up the street. Toomey suggested that next year the festival staff would have to be more strict about booth closing times and that they would probably move the final performances up to 5 p.m. Contrary to all reasonable The overall cost of recent festivals has averaged be-1 be-1 tween $70,000 and $75,000, one-third of which is offset by the $1 entry fee. Most of J the balance is covered by the ' exhibiting artists, who each pay application and entry fees of $125 to $200 per space. The rest (a very small percentage) is paid for with in-kind donations. Toomey emphasized that the Art Festival does not Inc. with non berry at the helm. The local companies were assisted by traffic otficers from the University of Utah and by Steve Kloek who organized the parking procedures at the Park City Ski Area. With their help, visitors were able to park in the spacious lot at the ski area and from there they were whisked to the bottom of Main Street by express buses which ran from 9 a.m. us than trying to reclose the street Sunday morning," Bell added. "It was a lot easier for me too," said Geer, who left his booth assembled on Main Street Saturday night. In previous years artists have had to disassemble their booths Saturday night and rebuild them Sunday morning. morn-ing. "The only tragedy of the Park City Art Festival and it is the city's centennial year too, so it's going to be a big deal," he said. Not content to rest on the laurels earned by this year's festival, Toomey added, "We never want to get to the point where we think we have it all figured out. We don't ever want to be complacent we always want to make it hetter." |