New Albany's dining scene and Harvest Homecoming.

Speaking of Harvest Homecoming, the fest's downtown "fit" has become an ever more controversial topic of conversation in New Albany. HH originated at a time when few businesses were operating downtown, and now, with revitalization proceeding apace ... well, shall we submit that a culture clash is brewing. My recent series focused on how our downtown eateries and watering holes are affected by Harvest Homecoming.

1 Harvest Homecoming: Do the evolution, don't fear the competition: http://www.cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvest-homecoming-do-evolution-dont.html

2 Harvest Homecoming: Not what downtown is about: http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvest-homecoming-not-what-downtown-is.html

3 Harvest Homecoming: When the tail wags the dog, we pause: http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/2012/09/harvest-homecoming-when-tail-wags-dog.html

And another: REWIND: Revisiting the Swill Walk (2007) ... http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com/2012/09/rewind-revisiting-swill-walk-2007.html

Some interesting reading Roger.

Some interesting reading Roger.

Thank you.

Well, I'll be blunt. You spend all your time sneering at the HH festival and suggesting, fairly intransparently I might say, that a lot of the visitors are lower caste proles. You set up an "alternative" festival to piggyback off of HH and now you wonder why the powers that be won't let you get in bed with them (on city property no less). I'm no political scientist... but my best guess is that you've p1ssed some people off.

I see it like this. Town festivals are a great way to bring the community together, even if it means being democratic and allowing people to attend who haven't graduated from the College of beer snobbery. I've been to 80 gazillion town festivals in Europe including San Fermin and God knows how many times the Oktoberfest and as you should well know, people there get wasted and p1ss and puke all over the place. Happens in small town festivals too (like my town of 5K inhabitants). Local merchants grin and bear it because that's just how town festivals are and always have been.

Be happy you work in a town that has it's **** together or look across the Interstate at Jeff and ask yourself why they couldn't keep the Steamboat Days going for more than a few years. And if the collection of "so much better than you" merchants in downtown New Albany is really that important to the landscape they should nominate someone to represent their interests on the HH organizing committee and get involved from the inside instead of throwing rhetorical stinkbombs at them from the outside.

Town festivals are a great way to bring the community together, even if it means being democratic and allowing people to attend who haven't graduated from the College of beer snobbery.

You may have missed the point, which is not beer snobbery, but "all politics is local" and the implications therein. And, duh, of course I've pissed them off. If someone didn't do it, they wouldn't examine the first premise during evolutionary times.

Sincerely: Thanks for reading.

I didn't miss that point at all. The PTB hold the cards. You're more interested in getting your "doesn't play well with others" merit badge than you are in playing the necessary political game to get done precise what you insist needs to get done. So you sit around and snipe at people publicly (including insulting the community at large).

Well, I guess that's one way of going about things.

Well, I guess that's one way of going about things.

Oh, good. You actually didn't miss the point. My relief is palpable.

Beware the march of the Roger-bots!

Well I'll thorw this out there and leave it be. Sucessful town festivals are getting rarer and rarer in America and the organizers deserve credit for keeping a good thing going . This is not a foodie-fest. It's not a gourmet-fest. It's a bog-standard town festival. Roger, if you wanna whinge online about the stench of the Elephant Ear booth, then fine. Me? When I go to the local festival I damned well want to buy an elephant ear from the lady at the Methodist Church booth. Or a corndog from the guys at the Lion's Club. Or a funnel cake from the PTA booth. Because that's what community festivals are about, folks coming together and raising money for good causes. If someone wants to up the food ante with classier chow and suds, well that's great. But don't dump all over the Boy Scouts for making snowcones for the 15th year running. And if you want to change things for the better, get someone who's read and understood some Dale Carnegie.


BTW, I went to the "Swill Walk" three years ago and had a great time. Saw people I hadn't seen since high school and college. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Robin Garr]

But don't dump all over the Boy Scouts for making snowcones for the 15th year running.

No, sadly there are much better reasons to dump all over the Boy Scouts than that.

When I go to the local festival I damned well want to buy an elephant ear from the lady at the Methodist Church booth. Or a corndog from the guys at the Lion's Club. Or a funnel cake from the PTA booth. Because that's what community festivals are about, folks coming together and raising money for good causes.

You missed the part about how there are fewer and fewer of these with each passing year. Unfortunately, HH now hosts a huge number of out-of-town circuit food carnies, not to mention trinket peddlars. There's precious little local about that, but I do agree with your characterization of the ideal.

Last year, we saw the exact same "handmade" hats that the people selling them were professing to have made themselves, at several booths...and I found one that still had the "made in China" tag on the inside. That's very sad. I like to buy actual handmade articles, made here by local people, not things that are "handmade" by people in Chinese factories.

Well, I reckon if you want to make headway, you're gonna have to play the local game. There's probably the beer distributor that always gets the local contract. He's buying uniforms for the little league kids and dropping off a keg or so at every police/fire banquet and otherwise getting his fingers in all the local politics. That's why he always gets the Coors Lite contract at the big beer tent. He's totally connected. Maybe the local renaissance people running all those new gastro businesses downtown can pool their capital to provide a political counterweight to the local beer baron. As I said you'll need someone diplomatic and with political skillz (psssst, Roger, that might not be your forte). Either get someone on the HH planning committee or, if you can't get past the fuddy-duddy brigade, find the one who's most progressive and pitch them a concept for next year. Make sure it seems like it's their idea .

Come up with a pitch that appeals to the constabulary too. Something to bring in classier patrons and rein in drunkeness. I know, I know, you already did this. But maybe a, ahem, less dogmatic messenger could seal the deal. Also, delete any snarkey commentary on the internet pointed at the HH festival. As long as that stuff is hanging around, they're not gonna be keen.

As I said you'll need someone diplomatic and with political skillz.

Thirty years into this great experiment with semi-adult employment, and yet still there are days like this when I learn new things I never so much considered before this. Politics? Fluffery? Indirect bribes? Cool beams. It's just like the Agora, at least before the Agora became the refuge for marginalized modern Athenians (someone ring the Merkel woman, please).

In fact, suddenly I am possessed with an idea: Maybe we should add a mark-up to the items we sell, and not merely vend them at cost! Thanks, and if you'll excuse me, I need to commence scrubbing the graffiti I've scribbled all over the internetz

I don't see why local businesses in New Albany can't lobby the HH committee to create a new section of the festival... dub it "Taste of New Albany"... where all local businesses can bring out samples of foods and crafts. Centralise it within the festival so people have to pass it. Sure the carny-type foods will have to be there... possibly separate it... everyone loves their corn dogs and funnel cakes... but it would benefit both the festival and local businesses to showcase local products.