All Greater Farmington Founders Day Festival activities, except for the parade, will be held at Shiawassee Park in 2019.
Dennis Page is banking on bands, dinner specials and his famed ox roast sandwiches to help draw patrons to his restaurant during Greater Farmington Founders Day Festival, July 18-21.
Drumming up business for Page’s Food & Spirits always has been a breeze during the event in previous years since it sits right downtown. But with nearly all of the festival action — from the beer tent to entertainment — moving to Shiawassee Park in 2019, Page is brainstorming ways to keep up momentum.
“In the past years it’s been the busiest week of the year for my business,” said Page, from his seat at the bar on a recent afternoon. “People would come here to eat before going to the beer tent, after going to the beer tent. If you’re going to take it to the park it’s obviously not going to help businesses here if it’s a mile away in the park.
Page, whose restaurant is located on Farmington Road approximately a half-mile to the park, is among business owners who oppose the decision to move the festival from downtown. The Greater Farmington Chamber of Commerce, which runs the festival, held children’s events and Fido Fest dog activities at Shiawassee Park last year, while maintaining musical entertainment and a beer tent in the parking lot at the Downtown Farmington Center on Grand River Avenue and Farmington Road. Art and crafts vendor booths were stationed on Farmington Road, south of State Street.
Next year all but the parade on Grand River will be held in the park. A section of Shiawassee Road from Power to Farmington Road will be closed.
Farmington City Council unanimously approved the Chamber’s special event application earlier this month.
Mary Martin, Chamber president, said the park is “logistically good” for a full festival, including entertainment and a beer tent. She told city officials that the children’s activities and canine events were successful last year and that sponsors were interested in concentrating all activities at one site, strengthening the festival’s exposure. She also noted that public safety costs would decrease with all activities in one place and parking would be freed up in the downtown shopping center. Farmington Road downtown also would remain open.
“Certainly, the beer tent is a draw in the evening, but in the day people are looking for entertainment. People are looking for things to do, not necessarily to buy things,” she said, during a recent phone interview.
At Joe’s Headquarters on Farmington Road north of State Street, hairstylist Brandy Gregg voiced her support for moving the festival to Shiawassee Park. She said some of her clients cancelled appointments during the event when it was held downtown because they couldn’t find parking in the area.
Joe and Kendra Mantey, owners of The Cheese Lady, located on the east side of the Downtown Farmington Center, said the festival neither helped nor hurt their business.
“One the one hand you hopefully have some new people come in and that theoretically leads to more business later. But on the other hand there was no place to park. They used up an awful lot of the parking lot to hold the festival,” Joe Mantey said.
Kristy Libby has worked festival weekends at Farmington Center Florist, which is located on the west end of the shopping center. She said the event generated new customers for the store.
“We get a lot of people coming in that didn’t know we were here,” she said,.
Greg Cowley, a former DDA member, former councilman, and owner of John Cowley & Sons Irish Pub & Restaurant, criticized the move in a statement posted on the restaurant website. He wrote that holding the festival in Shiawassee Park would cost downtown businesses revenue and over time would downgrade the event.
“My biggest objection is restaurants are going to pay the price for the moving of the beer tent to the park. They’ll fill the place with food trucks. All that revenue going to food trucks. That is not economic development," he said.
He accused the city council and Downtown Development Authority of abdicating their responsibility by allowing the Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with an events production company, to produce the festival.
According to DDA Director Kate Knight, a nonprofit organization ran the festival before the DDA took it on in 2009, handing management to the Chamber in 2014. She said the event became “overwhelming” for her predecessor and DDA staff.
“There are no downtown development authorities that run big events. That’s not the way it works any more. It’s not part of what DDAs do. Either you’re going to do economic development and downtown development, capital projects or you’re going to be a party planner,” she said.
Knight said the festival is a perfect time for downtown businesses to create their own special activities, such as a sidewalk sale or party tent. Miller encourages restaurants to participate in the park or run shuttle buses from the park to downtown.
Miller said the Chamber is in discussion with Our Lady of Sorrows and Farmington Public Schools for use of parking lots at the church and Farmington High School. Final plans will be announced closer to the event.