urbanSTL

http://www.entertainmentstl.com/contact/

If we all message entertainment stl about the moving Taste of St. Louist then maybe they would move it back downtown or be pressured to say why they left.

roger wyoming II wrote:from the article: "Maggie Crane, communications director for the City of St. Louis, puts the news in terms of the regional perspective rather than city vs. the county.

"It's still a good event for the region," Crane says. "Finding the best place [for them], that's great. We'll support it.""

Well, isn't that just dandy? Maggie Crane (and her boss, no doubt) seem so crestfallen by the departure of an event that brings tens of thousands of people downtown. And don't tell me this is regionalism. It stinks to high heaven.

What's to stop city restaurateurs from starting another 'taste' festival downtown? Taste of the City?

In a related development, a Chesterfield Lawyer is petitioning a federal judge to re-open the Dred Scott case with a change of venue to Chesterfield. "We don't think they could get a fair re-trial in the city, given how the media has sensationalized things up to this point."

Also, Chesterfield officials are making inquires with the National Park Service about the possibility of moving the Gateway Arch to Chesterfield. "We're offering them "Park over the Highway", but it has a whole different meaning out here." Chesterfield officials say that the Park Service is "intrigued."

Finally, Chesterfield is considering changing its name to "StLouis." instead of Chesterfield. When told their is already a St. Louis, officials pointed out the difference. "We moved the dot. Its like Fun., the rock band. Its a whole different word.

Per the nextstl write up, there's definitely more to this. It doesn't make economical sense to give up a 400,000 person event to go to a place with a capacity of only 4,000. Maybe Entertainment St. Louis feels stabbed in the back by the City for BB328. Maybe the City wants more money from Entertainment STL since Summer Rocks is willing to give $400,000 a year and Entertainment STL just can't pay it.

What's to stop city restaurateurs from starting another 'taste' festival downtown? Taste of the City?

Agreed. Taste was obviously successful. People loved going to it. People that went to it likely don't love going to Chesterfield nearly as much. Geta group of City restaurants, artists, musicians in tents and it'll be successful. Just look at Food Truck Fridays.

seanmcelligott644 wrote:http://www.entertainmentstl.com/contact/

If we all message entertainment stl about the moving Taste of St. Louist then maybe they would move it back downtown or be pressured to say why they left.

I've spoken with the owner of Entertainment St Louis. I'd like to share our email correspondence because there is a lot of insight there but out of respect to him I will not. However I think there are a couple things people should know:

1) He lives downtown
2) Entertainment St Louis HQ is downtown
2) He started his company and Taste to showcase the CITY

Entertainment St Louis is a very small company that puts on large events. From our correspondence I get the feeling that his events were "asked" to step aside to make room for something bigger. I firmly believe that all the reasons given for the move, i.e. parking, food network people, closer to upper-middle class, etc. were spin to conceal what is currently going on in a not so veiled way behind the scenes. He genuinely seems pained by this decision, even though the decision may not have been totally in his control.

There is much more to this story and it will be fun to watch it unfold over the next month.

dweebe wrote:

roger wyoming II wrote:from the article: "Maggie Crane, communications director for the City of St. Louis, puts the news in terms of the regional perspective rather than city vs. the county.

"It's still a good event for the region," Crane says. "Finding the best place [for them], that's great. We'll support it.""

That's not what I want to hear coming out of St. Louis City Hall. I'm expecting spin: but not "Yaaay Chesterfield!"

Couldn't he just have moved the two festivals to other weekends? It seems like an overreaction but full details aren't readily available.

I don't understand that either...
1. Move the festival to another date.
2. Create another one for Chesterfield, named Taste of Chesterfield.
3. There is already one called Taste of Clayton...so why can ST Louis City no longer have one?

I don't understand that either...
1. Move the festival to another date.
2. Create another one for Chesterfield, named Taste of Chesterfield.
3. There is already one called Taste of Clayton...so why can ST Louis City no longer have one?

Yes, seems like there are plenty of options to leave it in the city rather than Chesterfield.

This is a pipe dream, but maybe, just maybe, they're getting events out of the Soldier's Memorial area so they can redo it as part of the Gateway Mall Master Plan (https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... 091215.pdf).
The new Summer Rocks festival will help pay for the upgrades. We get an another upgraded section of the Gateway Mall on the level of City Garden. All the old festivals come back, and we get a new music festival for the next 20 years. One can hope....

robertn42 wrote: From our correspondence I get the feeling that his events were "asked" to step aside to make room for something bigger. I firmly believe that all the reasons given for the move, i.e. parking, food network people, closer to upper-middle class, etc. were spin to conceal what is currently going on in a not so veiled way behind the scenes.

If that's the case, I don't understand what incentive he has to spin this -- it doesn't make his business look good when their excuses are so flimsy.

That said, the move doesn't pain me as much as it does to others. Let them try something different if they want and then we can all judge the results.

pat wrote: This is a pipe dream, but maybe, just maybe, they're getting events out of the Soldier's Memorial area so they can redo it as part of the Gateway Mall Master Plan (https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... 091215.pdf).
The new Summer Rocks festival will help pay for the upgrades. We get an another upgraded section of the Gateway Mall on the level of City Garden. All the old festivals come back, and we get a new music festival for the next 20 years. One can hope....

FWIW, I don't really care for festivals in the Soldier's Memorial area as there's just too much concrete for my liking. It just seems a bit janky. I don't know if I'm alone, but I enjoy festivals that take place in parks with grass like Tower Grove and Forest Parks.

JNOnSTL wrote:

dweebe wrote:I know some people here hate Maplewood with a white hot passion and have promised to never set foot in/shop there: but they've always had a nice neighborhood scale one along Sutton Ave. It's May 17th this year.

I've always liked Maplewood, it feels like an extended neighborhood of the City (as do many other inner ring burbs).

As this thread has "suburban sprawl" in the title, I feel it's worth noting here that Maplewood is where my G-Grandparents moved in the 1930's to flee the City to finish raising my grandpa & his brothers, though they would move back to Tower Grove South in the 1950's, once the kids were out of the house.

Was Maplewood the Chesterfield of 80 years ago?

Probably, the same way Lafayette Park was the Chesterfield of its day. Unless you think the unique thing about Chesterfield is that it's aggressively not a neighborhood, but rather a collection of disconnected lots which share a post office.

Maplewood has way more character than Chesterfield.. I will say Chesterfield has Maplewood beat when it comes to high pay jobs. Other than that give me Maplewood any day...

This Chesterfield sculpture represents what happens if you eat too much at TOSL:



The should hang a giant french fry form his hand as if he is dropping it into his mouth.
I hear they plan to add a "belly" after the food event, to better represent the the local residents.

Slightly off topic, but the other festival that fled to Chesterfield, Bluesweek, had only 1/3 of the attendance it had when held in the City. If Taste of St. Louis goes similarly, do you guys think they will consider returning?

Went with daughter for lunch. Things looked slow at noon but was picking up by 12:30. All the food booths are on dirt / grass. Saw a lot of struggling kiddie strollers. They are lucky it didn't rain. It would become a quagmire. The biggest booth was the giant Texas -- a whole other country booth. I always thought they wimped out on their slogan -- by not using the real Texas word nother. They have a stage for a band, etc. I guess Rick Perry is really going after St Louisans. More Chesterfield restaurants and fewer city restaurants represented. They need to call this one taste of Chesterfieild and do a separate one for St Louis.