PROVIDENCE – PVDFest this past weekend, according to some business leaders, was a tale of two cities.
After several changes were made, including moving PVDFest to the Providence River, the three-day event took place Sept. 8-10 to celebrate the city’s arts culture. The reaction to this year’s PVDFest, much like the feelings toward the changes to the event, is quite mixed. But business leaders hope discussions can be had to make any necessary adjustments for next year’s event.
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With this year’s event along the Providence River, more artists and vendors participated in offering their work to those attending PVDFest, said Rick Simone, the Federal Hill Commerce Association president who sits on the Providence Tourism Council that supports the annual festival.
Simone told Providence Business News on Tuesday he saw some “impressive” setups from artisans and vendors at PVDFest when he attended the event Sept. 9 and Sept. 10. Additionally, the city, Simone said, developed a plan that could help PVDFest “go really well” for the future with some of the changes organizers made to the event.
Daniel Crenca, owner of NicoBella’s Family Restaurant LLC on Dorrance Street, described this year’s PVDFest to PBN as a “beautiful event” and lauded Mayor Brett P. Smiley’s administration for creating a “family day” near the pedestrian bridge along the river.
City Director of Communications for Economic Development Michaela Antunes told PBN Tuesday that festival attendees too provided some mixed reactions during PVDFest. Some attendees told city officials they enjoyed celebrating “in a less-crowded space” while others preferred the old downtown layout, Antunes said.
However, there was still a noticeable void over the weekend – particularly within downtown.
Crenca said PVDFest became a “celebration of downtown and the arts district” that was borne out of a past block party created by AS220. This year, that downtown celebration was “completely lost,” Crenca said, along with the fact that PVDFest helps downtown businesses and restaurants make money to “get back to par.”
“When you bring events like this downtown … you bring events like this, you bring business into the city.”
Simone said businesses, while glad to host block parties on Sept. 8, did not see the revenue volume materialize to what they hoped for because the rest of PVDFest was too far away from downtown to attract the foot traffic they had in prior years.
Crenca said his business was down 90% during this year’s PVDFest compared to past PVDFest events and the block party NicoBella’s had Sept. 8 was “the slowest block party we ever had.”
Regarding transportation around the festival, Antunes said the city did not subsidize any costs for transportation to and from PVDFest. She said there was “plenty of transportation” to the festival via the R.I. Public Transit Authority’s regular travel schedule.
Mother Nature also spoiled the festivities. The city, due to the massive rains that moved through Rhode Island, ordered vendors and festivalgoers to shelter in place both on Sept. 9 and Sept. 10. PVDFest was then forced to cancel the remainder of the weekend festivities on Sept. 10 when a flash flood warning moved through the area, as well. While city officials do not yet have an approximate attendance figure for this year’s PVDFest, Simone feels the poor weather “was a huge factor” in event attendance.
Also, multiple vendors told some local news outlets the weekend storms left local business owners working at PVDFest with damaged merchandise valued in the thousands. Antunes told PBN the city is reaching out to vendor managers who curated the PVDFest Artisan Market and independent curators who hosted their own markets during the weekend to find out how the storm impacted them and determine how the city can “provide assistance.”
John Kirk, owner of Masa Taqueria PVD LLC on Atwells Avenue, heavily criticized Smiley in an Instagram video, claiming that many small business owners told the mayor how against they were of the changes made to PVDFest. The food truck owner even called for Smiley to apologize to “every business he has [expletive] over this weekend.”
Kirk said if the event was in downtown during the weekend rain, people could have gone into area businesses to seek shelter and “spend money.” Instead, Smiley, Kirk said, decided to have people shelter in place “in parking garages.”
“That’s time wasted where businesses are not making money and tax revenue is not being generated,” Kirk said.
Kirk also said he did sell all his food offerings over two days at PVDFest but felt he should have brought in “three to four times” more business than he did. He also said he, and “probably every other food truck out there” that worked PVDFest, will likely not return to work at next year’s event.
In responding to the criticism, Simone said there are “always frustrations and aggravations” that come along with making alterations to any event the community holds dear. He also said the current city administration worked hard to bring this event to light. Simone noted that similar concerns were made about issues including downtown and businesses as part of PVDFest when then-Mayor Jorge O. Elorza helped launch the annual arts event in 2015. Simone and Antunes both hope future conversations about building on PVDFest can be had where all parties can benefit from the event.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
PVDFest is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Let Brown, RISD, JWU and PC pay for it.