Serving as president of the non-profit corporation that oversees Canal Fest keeps Larry Denef pretty busy during the eight-day festival, which draws an estimated 200,000 or so people to the Twin Cities each July.
This year, Canal Fest had to endure a potential conflict with the Italian Heritage Festival in Buffalo, as well as the fact that because of sponsorship issues, the popular bike cruise was canceled.
Still, the weather cooperated for the most part, and attendance seemed on par to previous years. Denef talked about this year’s Canal Fest for this week’s Question & Answer feature.
QUESTION: How was attendance this year compared to years past?
ANSWER: It was an average attendance, other than when it threatened rain. When the sun was out, it was an average attendance. We usually average about 200,000 people. It’s got to be close to that.
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Q: Did the Italian Festival have an impact?
A: That one’s hard to say. I haven’t talked to (Italian Festival organizers) yet to see what their numbers were like, but I would say that it’s minimal (impact). There’s a minimal crossover in attendance. And next year the event will be the 19th through the 26th, so it’s back to the third full week of July and we won’t have to worry about any of that.
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Q: What were some of the comments you heard this year from festival-goers?
A: A lot of good comments. One of the big things is that it doesn’t cost anything to come down here. If they want to ride the rides and have some drinks, that’s up to their discretion. They wish there would have been a bike cruise this year. We hope to have that back next year. That alone by default creates a little lower attendance, because you have 3,000 bikes coming in with one to two people per bike.
Q: What about the members and vendors?
A: I haven’t talked to all the vendors yet. We’ll get all of their reports in September. With the economy taking some weird turns, attendance does not always relate to sales. There’s numbers that are down, but...it could be because of the economy or because one food item was hotter than another. It goes in cycles.
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Q: What was the most stressful thing for you this week?
A: Nothing really overly stresses me out. When you become stressed, you start making mistakes. You don’t want to have any knee-jerk reactions. You do what’s best for the event. There’s always member issues and crowd control issues, but sometimes I can clear it up with a phone call and other times I have to make a visit. That’s how I get my exercise.
Q: Based on this year’s experience, do you have any thoughts on new things for Canal Fest 2009?
A: We tried street entertainment this year, which went over really well. We had the silver “Tin Man” guys — they look like statues. I tell ya, they are good. That’s got to be tough on their body. We had a magician and a guy on stilts, so we want to expand on that next year and have more street entertainers.
We could maybe do a night street parade — not to the extent of what we have now — just something a little different. The lights on the floats would look cool. Logistically, it could be tough. We’re always looking for added attractions that people would be interested in.
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
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