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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 8.2 Pasta Festival Eval (2)CITY CLERK FILE # 950-40 AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: October 19, 1999 SUBJECT: ATTACHMENTS: Evaluation of 1999 Dublin Pasta Festival Report Prepared by Paul McCreary, Recreation Supervisor RECOMMENDATION: 1. Letter from Owner of Dublin Honda Letter from Sales Manager at Dublin Honda Consider recommendations of Staff and the Parks and Community Services Commission Provide direction on the location and date for the 2000 festival FINANCIAL STATEMENT: None DESCRIPTION!r " ~e"lg~9'DUblinPastaFest.val washeld the weekend of September 11 and 12. Prior to 1999 the Pasta Festival was sponsored and produced by GoodTimes Promotions, he. In 1998 the event moved firom' Pleasanton to Dublin because the festival had outgown the site in Pleasanton. On May 4, 1999, the' City Council approved an agreement with GoodTimes Promotions to /--produce the event on behalf of the City, which is the new event sponsor. The agreement with {,, GoodTimes Promotions is a multi-year contract, which can be renewed annually for up to five years. The agreement will be reviewed each year and consideration may be given' to an annual adjustment oft he management fee, which would be brought before the City Council for approval. Following is a summary of the various components of the festival. FESITVAL ·SITE The event was held on Amador Plaza Road between Dublin Boulevard and Amador Valley Boulevard. Additional space was used in the parking areas between the General Cinema and Operating Engineers Credit Union. Three Pasta Patios were located on Amador Plaza Road and each featured two beverage booths and two or four locil restaurants serving pasta samplings. Other vendors on Amador Plaza Road included 43 art and craft vendors, 50 commercial vendors and two non.profit groups. The main stage and dining pavilion was located between.the movie theater and El Torito. The new Washington Mutual stage was located behind PetSmart along Amador Plaza Road. A children's carnival area was located between E1 Torito and the Operating Engineers Credit Union and featured games, rides, a petting zoo, and a family stage. Classic hot rods and Mustangs were at each end of Amador Plaza Road on Saturday, however the Mustang car club did not show up on Sunday. Classic cars were also located next to the main stage and dining pavilion. PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION A majority :of the people attending the festival parked in the:Target and Montgomery Ward parking lots. COPIES TO: ooogr~,,,= p,.o,,,otio,,s, i. dZh,Ui,, So.,t,~ ITEM NO. -4~ :G:\COUNCn-,\!019pasta-DOC the surrounding parking lots were close to capacity, there were always parking spaces available for customers shopping at the surrounding businesses. Handicap parking was available by the old Copela~d_ Sports building, east of the Dublin Library. Wheels ran a bus from the BART station to the festival every 30 minutes on Saturday, and every 60 minutes on Sunday. FESTIVAL VENDORS . GoodTimes Promotions was responsible for selling the booth space at the festival. summary of the booth sales: Art and Craft Vendors Commercial Vendors Restaurant Vendors Food Carts Non Profit Organizations (free space) Children's Attractions TOTAL VENDORS 43 50 10- 6 4 5 118 Following is a ATTENDANCE Based on estimates provided by Dublin Police and the beverage sales for the weekend, it is estimated that 40,000 people attended the festival, which is an increase of 10,000 over last year. It is estimated that 500 people attended the performance by the Coasters on Saturday evening. Attendance was higiher on Saturday than on Sunday. This may be due in part to the start of the NFL season on Sunday. Additionally there were a large number of events in the Bay Area that weekend including the Cowboy Roundup, Pittsburg Seafood Festival, and the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival. FOOD AND BEVERAGE As noted earlier, three Pasta Patios were located on Amador Plaza Road, each featuring two or four local restaurants serving pasta samplings for $2.00-$4.00 each. The Pasta Patios each had two beverage booths selling beer, wine, soda, water and glasses. Two beverage booths were also. located in the main dining pavilion. Dublin Police Services reported that there were neither any adverse incidents related to the consumption of alcohol nor was there a problem with people attempting to leave the festival with alcohol. Restaurants Serving food at the festival included: Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too Dublin Fishery Gimanelli's Girasole Big Horn Grill Le Plesant Jardin Rigatoni's Round Table Pizza Giuseppe's Faz America Restaurant & Catering ADVERTISING The festival was promoted in several ways. KKIQ was the official radio sponsor for the festival. In addition KNBR, KFOG :and KSAN donated advertising for the event. Each of the-radio stations ran commercials prior to the event and KKIQ did a live broadcast from the festival on Satiurday from 10:00 "~ A.M.-1:00 P.M. The Tri-Valley Herald was the official newspaper sponsor for the festival. The Herald included festival infqrmation in the Chamber of Commerce tab section. The tab section was included in the Tri-Valley Herald and the San Ramon Valley Herald, and was also mailed to all Dublin residents (total circulation of 53,000 households). In addition, advertisements were also included in all of the ANG newspapers in the East Bay including the Oakland Tribune, Alameda Times Star, The Argus and the Herald newspapers. Advertising was also purchased from the Valley Times and Contra Costa Newspapers. A Pasta Festival banner was hung over San Ramon Road for the two weeks prior to the event. Full color posters were placed in businesses throughout the Tri-Valley. Over 2,300 flyers were distributed to students in the Dublin School District. The event was promoted on Channel 2's "Mornings on Two" program and on Channel 5's ten o'clock news. The event was also advertised on the electronic marquee at Dublin Auto Center along Interstate 580. FESTIVAL WORKERS · Several local non-profit organizations provided volunteers to work at the Pasta Festival as beverage servers, cashiers, festival runners, trash pickup or event setup and takedown. Volunteers provided over 1000 hours at the Festival. It is estimated that local non-profit groups netted over $7,000 from the event by either providing festival workers or selling snack items from food carts. LOCATION FOR FUTURE FESTIVALS FOllowing the t 999 Pasha' Festival, Dublin Flcinda inforrrieCi the' city they 'are strongly opposed to holding the event on Amador Plaza Road in the future (see attached letters). Dublin Honda has indicated that in each of the past two years, the temporary road closure during the festival has resulted in lost automobile sales, lost commission for the sales staff, and a disruption of inventory shipments. Dublin Honda 'also {,_.claims the festival will have a detrimental impact on future shipments of.new vehicles from the .,, .nanufacturer because the shipments are based on sales Volume. As a result, Staff :from Parks and Community Services, Police, Fire, Public Works and Economic Development met to discuss alternate sites for the Pasta Festival. Staff identified the Dublin Sports Grounds and Civic Center as a potential site for future Pasta Festivals; however, if the event were moved to the Sports Grounds, the event dates would need to be changed to August 12 & 13, 2000 to avoid conflicts with existing programs at the Sports Grounds. An additional option would be Emerald Glen Park however the park would not be available for a festival of this type until 2001. Staff has reviewed the Sports Grounds site with GoodTimes Promotions. The promoter is strongly opposed to moving the festival from 'its current location on Amador Plaza Road. The Pasta Festival has moved several times in recent years and has finally been in the same location for two years. GoodTimes is concerned that moving the festival again would have a detrimental impact on booth sales and sponsorships. Further; moving the festival would damage the credibility GoodTimes has built with the vendors and sponsors. DATE FOR FUTURE FESTIVALS The Pasta Festival. has traditionally 'been held the weekend after Labor Day each year. However, due to the large number: of ZFestivals held during the month of September,; GoodTimes has. suggested moV..ing the event into August . With ~less competition from other events, the promoter hopes to increase .sponsorships, improve booth sales and increase attendance. Possible dates for the 2000 festival that were ,, aggested by GoodTimes are August 12.13 or August 19-20. RECOMMENDATION As part of the evaluation process, the Parks and Community Services Commission reviewed the Pasta- Festival at the September 20, 1999 meeting. The Commission considered the date change suggested by GoodTimes but not the location change requested by Dublin Honda. (The correspondence from Dublin Honda had not been received when the Commission conducted the evaluation.) Overall the Commission was pleased with the event and felt it had improved from the previous year. In particular, the Commission felt that the parking and traffic circulation was improved, the main dining and entertainment area was good and the restaurants serving pasta, rather than typical festival food vendors was an improvement. The Commission did make the following recommendations for the 2000 festival: Festival should continue to be held on Amador Plaza Road the weekend following Labor Day. The Commission felt that it would be difficult to recruit volunteers for an August event as a number of the non-profit groups do not meet regularly in the summer. They also felt that attendance could drop due to the large number of people who vacation in August. The number of arts and crafts vendors should be increased and the number of commercial vendors decreased. The Commission felt that there should be more emphasis placed on recruitment of arts and crafts vendors and the number of commercial vendors should be limited so that there is not so much duplication. Vendors should .be required to remain open during-the .published festival hours, including the Saturday night concert. The Commission observed that a number of the vendors closed prior to the Saturday evening concert although the publicity advertised the festival hours until 8:00 p.m. If vendors are going to close, the advertisement should reflect this. Cleanup crews should not be allowed to begin cleanup before the festival closes for the day. The Commission observed that the volunteer cleanup crews started to cleanup while the Saturday evening concert was going on which was somewhat disruptive to the festivities. The number of volunteer workers in the beverage booths needs to be re-evaluated. The Commission observed that at.certain times of day, there were more volunteers in the booths than the beverage sales warranted. Staff also-conducted an evaluation of the event. In general, Staff was pleased with GoodTimes Promotions and recommends that they continue to promote the event in the future. Staff also concurs with recommendations 2 through 5 of the Parks and Community Services Commission. Additional recommendations of Staff for the 2000 festival are as follows: Promot~ should increase operations staff to better coordinate the festival volunteers and beverage/ice distribution. City staff spent a significant amount of time assisting GoodTimes' operations staff with coordinating volunteers and distributing beverages and ice. Several of the beverage booths were not fully stocked until 12:30 P.M. on Saturday. These functions are to be handled by GoodTimes as part of their management fee. Promoter should coordinate the festival electrical plan with Public Works in advance of the festival. During :the week :prior 'to ;the event there were several changes made to the electrical plan developed.by GoodTimes. .Public Works was unaware Of theseschanges which included the need' for additional generators and connections for the main stage and restaurants. Consequently, the extra generators and power connections were rented on Saturday morning, which delayed some restaurants and booths from opening on time. Promoter should re-evaluate the vendor fee structure 'and develop a new event budget based on the final financial statement. Although the final financial statement is still being prepared, it appears the revenue generated from the festival did not meet the budget proposed by GoodTimes Promotions. in particular the beverage sales were 45% less than the budget. Additionally the booth fees collected from the restaurants barely covered the rental costs of the generators 'and tents for the restaurant areas. Promoter should send an evaluation form to the festival workers from the non-profit organizations -and festival vendors. The volunteers and vendors were on the "front-line' at the event and may have valuable insights for future festivals. Promoter should develop an improved plan for recruiting, scheduling, trig and orientating the festival volunteers. Six groups ,were recruited to provide volunteers for the event. The week prior to the festival it was discovered that the groups had insutWcient volunteers to cover all of the shifts. Therefore many of the positions had to be filled at the last minute which created confusion the first day of the event. A majority of the volunteers showed up but did not know what their assignment was for the festival. It also seems that the information provided to the volunteer coordinators at the training did not get disseminated to all of the volunteers. Promoter should evaluate the beverage and food sales operation. In order to account for the beverage sales, cash registers were located in each beverage booth. The cash registers were operated by volunteers and were problematic. in addition to the thirteen cash registers for beverage sales there were ten restaurants and six carts selling food. The Police were concerned with having so many locations where money was exchanging hands. "' lYr0iioter ihoutd 'investigate more unique commemorative items, such as pasta bowls, to sell at future festivals as shirt sales at the City's festivals are beginning to decline. In addition to the recommendations of Staff and the Parks and 'Community Services Commission, Staff requests direction from the City Council on the location and date of the festival for 2000. If the Council is interested in pursuing alternate locations and looking at alternate dates, Staff will work with GoodTimes Promotions, Inc. to identify potential locations and dates for consideration by the City Council at a future meeting. Additionally, Staff will work with GoodTimes Promotions to farther evaluate the recommendations and determine how they can be implemented. Ken Harvey's DUBLIN HONDA City of Dublin P O Box 2340 Dublin Ca. 94568 Attn.: Richard Ambrose Mr Ambrose, I am writing you with great concern for my dealerships financial future. As you know this September was the second year in a row that Amador Plaza Rd. closed for the Pasta Festival. The current and future financial impact of ...... thi~ fi~sti~)al is tod'g~at t'C~' alloW' it"'~o'happen"again!' If I we'~e to only document the loss in sales for that weekend It would be a lot of money, but added to the loss of future shipments of new Honda inventory due to the slow down in sales volume the amount is devastating! Honda allocates us new .... Honda inventory based on our daily rate of sales compared not only to the sales we generate but of the competing 16 Honda Dealers in our area. Honda monitors this through a sophisticated computerized system. Therefore by my sales suffering for two weekend days the number of hard to get Hondas I will receive in the future will be forever impacted. Verification of this is easily obtained through Honda as they are as concerned as I am. I could continue to elaborate on other impacts like the loss of sales contests where we win trips abroad and cash incentives lost but I will not bore you with that until I file a formal law suit against the City of Dublin. As you know sir, Dublin Honda ,has been a responsible member of the community .for over 23 years and never have I created anything but good will to this City and have only expected the same in return. I certainly hope that this can be resolved soon. Marc Harvey co/Honda Legal affairs oc/KH co/Guy Houston cc/Chris Foss cc/Eiizabeth Silver Dublin Honda- 7099 ,-~maclor Plaza Road, I)ublin, C~,\ 9456S-2315o (925)828-80,~(, ATTACHMENT 1 Ken Har'vey's DUBLIN September 22, 1999 Richard Ambrose, HONDA RECEIVED OCT - 2, 1999 CiTY OF DUBLIN For the past two years, the City of Dublin has sponsored a pasta festival on Amador Plaza Road. By closing this street, the only reasonable access to our dealership has been eliminated. Because the majority of our business is performed on the weekend, the results of this festival have been disastrous to Dublin Honda. The customers that were willing to park up to a mile away and navigate their way to our dealership on foot, were amazed that we would let something like this happerL Although we were told we could expect increased sales because of this event, we have not documented a single sale that was generated by this festival Because we are paid commission only, not by the hour, this festival has had a significant impact on our income. Because contacts are typically made on weekends that result in future sales, the repercussions of this festival are far reaching. would have less impact on retail establishments that rely on eet acce for their livelihood. /, .-~ j ~/ "' / ,~ Sincerely, '" ~ " ' ~ , · .-. / I j ~/ Brett Allen Genera Sales anager / / t / " J" //v ,/ Sales Staff [ ~ '"" Cc: Guy Ho~on ~ Cc: C~ Co~cil Members ~~ Dublin Honda- 7099 Amador Plaza Road, Dublin, CA gq568-2315- (925) 82b,-803(I ATTACHMENT 2