FESTIFALL (A WCHL Commentary)

Wow!  Sunday we celebrated Festifall on Franklin Street and what an amazing event it was!  Big thanks to all of the Parks and Rec staffers, other town staff members, volunteers, the entertainers, and all of the folks who operated booths.  The weather was beautiful, the booths offered all sorts of arts and information, ant there were events for kids of all ages.  The entertainment was varied and appealed to a variety of tastes.   

The four hours we spent walking around and talking to friends and neighbors was just plain fun.  It was good to see some of the Franklin Street businesses open and they seemed to be attracting customers.  I have two observations though that I want to throw out.  First, it didn’t seem that the street was as crowded as it has been in prior years.  I don’t know if there is attendance data available that can confirm or refute my observation, but it would be good to find out.  Second, there just didn’t seem to be as many Chapel Hill citizens participating as I would have hoped.  Nothing scientific about this observation either.   

It’s great that visitors come to support our event, but where were the people of Chapel Hill?  It just seems to me that since we only have one street event a year, we would support it.  I would hope people would come to a downtown event that they pay for and I hope they harbor no negative impressions of our downtown.  I don’t know if that’s relevant in this case, but it would be great if we supported the Town, the staff and volunteers through our participation.  Festifall was a ball!