Fresno Famous

Off to a good start?

9 booths and 5 were non-profits? there was barely 300 there on Saturday and maybe 400 on Friday.
Armenians have tons of their own festivals, that compete with the city.
100,000 at Cinco De Mayo well when you have a population of Hispanices of over 65% of the 1.5 million in our county that is to be expected.

Hye Fest is a waste of Tax Payers Money

As an Armenian, I was disappointed in the 9 booths that were on display for the Hyefest. the majority of the booths were non-profits. It seems most of the good Armenian Businesses from the north end of town could not afford to shut down for the day just to man a booth at the dead zone (the Fresno Downtown Mall)

We have several other church festivals that conflict with the city sponsored one. The Armenian community has plenty of their own festivals.

Just for clarifcation

@Famous - I didn't want to insinuate that you didn't appreciate the efforts of all those that were involved. I think I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't do that. I just thought contrived was a strong word to use.

There is no doubt in my mind that some things will work and some things won't, but like the old saying goes, 'better to have tried and failed...' I think we're always going to have people that are looking for ANY reason to say 'see I told you downtown sucks' but we really can't let those people dictate how WE move downtown forward. If they were 'EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED" (from a comment at TheFresnan.com)with something so innocuous as a cultural festival, maybe there was a chance that nothing was going to make them happy... Maybe.

I personally agree that it was a success in that: 1) it was fun 2)it attracted people who, for the most part, probably don't visit the mall all that often. And that, in my book, is a good thing.

So here is to hoping that next year's HyeFest is bigger and better.

Abe Lopez

HyeFest contrived?

Well, I'd say no, it isn't contrived, at least no more so than any other event or festival. Yes, the City's DCR department did a lot of the heavy lifting on this event and was the driving force for making it happen. BUT it wasn't just a city effort. The HyeFest committee had a lot of buy in from the local Armenian community, Diko Chekian, Sevag Tateosian, Mike Bashian, Anna Borgeas and many others who stepped up and did the hard work to make it happen.

questions for thought

despite my best intentions, i didn't make it down to the hyefest. having said that, i was interested in the event.

i'm curious why back to back weekends were chosen? and, when's the next festival? are we going to see the friday night events on kern street again?

i checked out the downtown association's calender, and i see a lot happening. will all of these events receive as much promo as these festivals? i mean, isn't the goal for people to think of downtown as a viable entertainment option every day/week?

I pick A!

I didnt go to this event. I wanted to go to this event.
After reading the reviews and viewing the pictures, I would say all in all, the event was a success for its inaugural run.
With that being said, I do believe within reason we should try to throw out as many events as possible to see what sticks. As for turning people off, I think the main turn off's are not the actual events but the safety people feel when they walk to and from their cars.
Seriously, this is always the problem for most north end Fresnans. Saftey and security.
Once we get them to the event, most folks feel safe and cocooned in the festival, parade, etc.
Its that getting to and from the car that wigs people out.
So with that said, keep up the good work DTA, the winds are changing!

Contrived.

You're right, I don't want to say the HyeFest was contrived, because A.) I wasn't there, and B.) I don't want to crap on the hard work people put into making a thing like this run, cause I know how that is and they should be applauded for the efforts and offered criticism as a constructive (not destructive thing).

Here's the but: When the city is going out of its way to help plan and facilitate these kinds of events, you run the risk of them losing their organic nature (with city sponsored booth, etc). I guess I question if there is a balance that needs to struck. Do we A.) throw out as many things and possible and see what sticks (knowing that if we turn people off of downtown they may never come back, cause people are like that), or B.) try to cultivate really good, sound events, even if it means we only have two or three a year?

We can all agree that the HyeFest is an idea that needed to happen and totally has the potential to be a huge event. So don't think I'm picking on this one event. It's more of a conversational spring board.

Hye Fest 2009

I think Hye Fest got off to a great start for its first year. Saturday especially was a blast! Not so long ago, Downtown's Cinco de Mayo festival was kinda small, not that big of a deal. Now it's drawing over 100,000 people a year. It takes time to build up an event. The local Armenian community should be very proud, as they did an excellent job coming together and putting on an event to showcase their culture for the entire community. I am certain next year will be bigger and better. After all, with the new administration taking over, they only had a few months to put this event (and RevFest) together. The HyeFest committee and the DCR dept staff deserve our thanks and congratulations on a successful first event. Here's some photos from the event for those who didn't get to attend and want to get an idea of what it was like:
http://www.downtownfresno.org/hyefest-celebrates-armenian-food-and-cultu...

My humble opinion

Quick disclaimer: I DIG downtown, so my views are a bit skewed.

With that being said. I don't think you can ever have too much stuff going on downtown. A person should be able to walk, bike or drive through downtown and run into several different festivals on any given weekend. Or at least in a perfect world that would be the case.

I'm not sure what you mean by your "contrived" statement. You kinda make it sound like you want to call HyeFest contrived, but don't really want to make that stand. Please elaborate.

Abe