Martin on Main Controversy Brewing?

I received a note from a reader about a petition that is apparently circulating to restrict the Martin on Main festival.

The Festival has been in place for two years, initially started by the Nazareth Downtown Association (on whose Board I served at the time), with the purpose of bringing those attending the unofficial Martin Forum annual meeting into the Downtown (whereas they typically stayed at the borough park for picnic and softball when not at the factory).

The event was designed to be festive, a celebration of acoustic guitar playing by everyone and anyone.  There are impromptu stages set-up so people can play and listen for the simple reason of doing it.  It was not organized as a promoted concert – but more as a free-for-all when it came to playing and players.

Literally thousands of visitors from around the world come to the event.

This year the Chamber stepped in to help and drew on its member resources to have over 40 vendors in addition to the bricks and mortar shops and restaurants.

From what I’ve heard, some individuals in town are calling for restrictions on the event including: no sale of beer, wine, or outside vendors; more music, less like a carnival, and were upset about the placement of the ice cream truck.

I was directed to two posts made by an individual who lives in Bethlehem and was involved in the event through the Chamber.

The first is about the event in general (read it here) and the second about the petition (read it here).

I’m not terribly surprised, considering there was opposition when I was involved with the Borough’s Economic Development Council planning a block party around the race at the Nazareth Speedway.  We closed a street to have three bands perform and the official event autograph session featuring all the drivers in the series.  We had shuttle service from the camping area at the track to the downtown.  We were simply bringing visitors in and people were upset.

The event is now gone.  Not Nazareth’s fault specifically, but an international event really needs to have events and support from the local communities and the race never did for a variety of reasons.

Now we have an audience again visiting every year, an iconic company they are coming to visit, and an opportunity for the community to benefit financially.  I want the borough to benefit.  I want to see people visiting downtown.  I want to see merchants get a one day hit that is as good as any other week of the year.  But if people are going to make it so difficult for organizers, I hope they move it to Upper Nazareth or another location instead of cancelling.

The notion that this event hurts business because of a road being closed is nonsense.  If NYC can shut down Broadway for the Thanksgiving Day Parade or Times Square for New Year’s Eve, I think we can handle Main Street from Center to Belvidere (one block).  Closing out the event to outside vendors I’d be good with, if we had twenty restaurants in the one block area to help serve the thousands who visited, but until that day, we need to have outside vendors.

Posted via email from Ross Nunamaker