Great weekend of art, music, food
The Coconut Grove Arts Festival and St. Stephen's Art Show continue today after a very successful day on Saturday. Thousands came out to enjoy the art, music and food.
My favorite booth this year had to be the African sculptures by Woodrow Nash from Akron, Ohio. I was drawn to it after passing by so many other artists.
A quartet? Quadruplets?
posted by Tom Falco at 5:00 AM
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14 Comments:
Which one is Tom?
Ive been living in the grove for so long and i havent been to this festival for a few years because its always the same.i decided to try it out yesterday and i remembered why i stoped going.oh my lord what a poorly organized event.so much greed.its no wonder the grove is dead
I don't agree, respectfully, with the second commentator's comment. My son and I went today with good friends, and it was a perfect day with lots of friendly people, "art" to almost anyone's taste, and a nice link with the St. Steven's festival.
Yeah, it was expensive, but the Grove has done far worse recently.
I thought this was a good event. Of course, I was able to walk, so the unpleasantness of parking was not an issue to me.
what was the matter with the event today?
it was the most glorious day as far as weather is concerned
i did have one artist say to me - the weather is too good - it is all families out just wandering - business is terrible
Fantastic weather. Massive crowds reminded me of a regular Coconut Grove weekend ten years ago.
The person who wrote the comment at 1:24 always berates Grove events with generic complaints. They could give out free cash at an event and he/she would still complain.
I'm curious how you are able to identify one anonymous post from another. Do you really think that only one person has a negative view of what the Grove events have turned into or are you simply working to make it seem that way.
While I am not the one one whose post you are berating I am a longtime resident who does not enjoy the event or how it impacts my daily life this weekend. I would not have bothered posting this but I think it's important for people who read the comments and yours in particular to realize that there is no single or lone dissenting opinion and that more than one person can have like opinions and writing styles.
The poor grammar, spelling, and tone are the same. The lack of details regarding why X event was horrible is always a tell tale sign. There's never any kind of explanation, just negativity. It's like asking a friend about a restaurant and they just say "it sucks and I'm never going back" without going into detail. Thanks, that was helpful.
When you've been reading the same site for years, certain commenters (trolls) stand out.
So I ask:
What was poorly organized about it? What was greedy about it? Why did you stop going in the first place? How would you make it better?
That's kinda funny because I find the ones who post happy happy joy joy blurbs in these comments about everything from events to the waterfront debacle to sound like the same person.
I've been commenting here for a couple of years both as an anon and with both my real name and nom de plumes. Care to name any two of them?
As to what's wrong with the event I really couldn't say as I stopped going years ago. Too expensive for crappy commercial art and cheap food. Perhaps this year is different but my past experience tells me not to gamble an entire day and pay event prices to find out that this is just another overhyped and overpriced tourist-centric happening.
Bill Brack,
Hello fellow grovites. im new to the site and live in the grove.my problem with this even it that its poorly organized.the art booths should be scattered thru the grove.up and down the side streets like by barracuda bar lokalburgers etc.this event should be free.and have shuttles from the metro rail.sponsors should be paying for this event not visitors.parking should be free during this event and always for that matter in the grove especialy if you want people to come back.simple ideas like this and bringing back the nightlife is what the grove needs.not 24/7 artsy fartsy stuff.thats what wynwwod is for.
Tom, I just wanted to let you know that I stopped by Woodrow Nash's booth, on your recommendation, and was blown away by his sculptures. I told him that you featured him in your blog, and his smile was huge. Though I am not a huge festival fan, only because I'm not in the market for art, I think, for whatever it's worth, it's a huge boon for the Grove each year, and, perhaps, for people like Woodrow Nash, who deserve recognition. Thank you for pointing him out to me.
I did speak to some local merchants, who all agreed that the traffic was less than in previous years, but, still A LOT better than an average weekend!
Perhaps some naysayers are unaware that, as a 33133 resident, admission is only $5.00, and, if you have a senior Metrorail pass, entry is free! Maybe they'll try is again next year. Also, volunteering is a lot of fun, and gets you in free all 3 days, plus you get t-shirts and posters.
To the numbnut that thinks everything is about "greed" at Grove events: please, please educate yourself on the incredible cost of producing these events. City and County permits, police, emergency, liability insurance (thanks, lawyers!), road closure, equipment rental, etc.. An event like the CGRAF runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on, so that people can spend a nice day strolling the streets viewing art. And if you live in 33133, you pay only $5.
If you want to find greed, look no further than the Grove merchants, who believe they are entitled to having events put on for free by other people on the Grove streets so that they can enjoy $30,000 days selling their crappy food. That's where the greed is.
The food at the festival really was horrible -- no Chinese food, no Thai food (thank you, Atchana for your good food), no Mexican food. I walked for 3 days through the food vendors and could find nothing edible. I bought chicken kabobs at 2 diffent spots, tough as leather, inedible. Seemed as if one company set up the same old same old bad stuff. Looked like it belonged at the Youth Fair. So disappointed. The Beaux Arts food is exceptionally better. Will bring my own next time.
i love Woodrow Nashs work and i go there particularly for it every year. I find the festival hard to criticize. perhaps if you go every year you can grow tired of the same thing but the comments let me know that some people have no idea how hard it is to get an event funded and yes while after 20 years the festival makes some money so be it. these things are heavily labors of love and the people who put in there time and there energy should be applauded.The complaint when it was free was that too many people came and you could not see the art , the entry price was first instituted to help keep the crowds down.
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