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Slurp!
I’ll be working a beer booth. C’mon out, Anonymous, I’d love to meet you.
I am starting off early and going to the farmer’s market and then the OFest.
I am staying far away. The fest has overgrown itself. After last year I am done with the massive crowds etc. What was once family fun is now commercial long lines and has a yuck factor. I wouldn’t bring kids at all.
Stay home, Anonymous, the rest of us will have fun without you. I’ll be selling beer tokens and looking forward to noshing. Looks like a great day!
I’ve always wanted to go to the Oysterfest but never felt I could afford it. After reading that letter in the Times- Standard the other day about beer prices there, I definitely won’t be going:
http://www.times-standard.com/letters/ci_18298557
It isn’t about whether or not you can get a good deal on some beer Fred. It’s about community.
At those prices, it certainly isn’t about the low income community. Not many people of limited means can afford $3 for a wrist band which allows them to buy a beer for $6. Is it really necessary to make a killing on every community event?
It’s not a bargain, because it’s a fundraiser, and thank god there were thousands of people there who were willing to pay the price.
That they were, Joel. It was fun slingin’ beer with you. It’s not the beer prices that are tough but the $3 for the ID check. For crapsake, I’m 50….ish….and I have to pay THREE BUCKS to have someone check and verify I’m over 21?! A dollar would suffice. Really Arcata Main Street, we’re working for free. You’re getting six bucks for every beer and there were MANY MANY beers sold. Get real on the ID check. It was fun, though, as it was last year. Yummy ersters, too.
Good point, Beachcomber, and great fun working with you. And I was glad that Anonymous was willing to pony up.
Yes Jane, when it’s a nonprofit’s major fundraiser, and the nonprofit makes its money from beer sales (not oysters), it is necessary for the nonprofit to charge what it needs so that it may continue to exist. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you would otherwise support the mission of mainstreet — preserving the historic nature of the downtown and helping independent businesses.
Is it really necessary to drink alcohol at every community event?
Thanks for pourin’ the brewskies guys!
Its about money. I quit going.
Any event where you pay money is about money. You might as well board up your doors and windows and become a hermit.
My point was that reasonable prices would be more inclusive and, if more people could afford to participate, you might make more money. Charging $3 for the ability to pay $6 for a beer is outrageous, particularly for people who only want one beer with their oysters. If you don’t think $9 for a beer in a plastic cup is too expensive for most people, you might be an elitist.
There are so many creative ways to have a cheaper beer at the Oyster Fest if you need to. Quit complaining
We’ll remember not to put Plain Jane in charge of fundraising.
I think with the high prices they make good money and keep people from getting too fucked up.Back in the day was hella’ fun but it definitely was pushing the limits with the hoity toity older Arcatans.
It was VERY well-attended but very crowded. I wish it would pencil out for them to run it two days instead of one.
Jane, you’re not paying $9 for a single beer for the day. You’re paying for the beer and making a donation to a nonprofit. If you think it’s expensive, try visiting a festival outside of Humboldt County. People expecting inexpensive beer at a festival probably are not in a financial position to be spending money on a festival in the first place.
Eat before you go, park your car, booze up, then walk to the plaza to enjoy the free music while inebriated. FYI, the lawn gets destroyed at big public events and event organizers get billed by the city to make the Plaza nice again (lawn repair, trash pick-up, physical repairs). It could be said that if you don’t buy a beer, or make an outright donation to the event organizer, you’re a freeloader, creating a negative impact without paying your way. I suppose this is not the case if you stay on the concrete, generate no waste (physical or bodily).
Just occurred to me that Jane’s method of raising funds by lowering prices is almost exactly analogous to the repub’s method of raising money by lowering taxes. FYI, neither one of them work.
Just occurred to me that Neomoderate’s marketing theories should be passed on to Walmart. If they raised their prices by 500% they’d make more money and eliminate all those “Walmart People” from their aisle to make it less crowded for those who believe if you have to worry about prices you shouldn’t be shopping. Such elitist attitudes are disheartening, especially in these hard financial times for so many in our community. Implying that people must be drunks if they think the beer prices are too high for most people to afford is a vile tactic. I will continue to make my cash donations to what I consider worthy causes and avoid the elitist “community festivals” which exclude most of the community with their high prices. Guess I’m more the school carnival type of community event person – no beer but prices on food and beverages that everyone can afford and which still raise a great deal of money.
Beer sales works, whether you approve or not. Cheap beer is a lot more work for the volunteers and, inevitably, more liability and trouble for security.
Why not simply thank the organizers, volunteers, and the people who are willing to pay a premium for the benefit of the community, instead of chiding them for not having an ice-cream social?
The system of charging $3 for the right to buy beer means the beers are progressively cheaper the more you imbibe, Joel. If you have one beer, it costs $9, if you have 4 they only cost $6.75. I appreciate the work of volunteers for all community events and the people willing and able to pay high prices to participate. Stating I wish prices were lower to include more of the community doesn’t make me a drunk or unappreciative. While I personally can afford $9 beers, I’d rather give my money to organizations which serve community needs than spend it at elitist events which exclude the majority with their price gouging. As the economy worsens and ever fewer people are able to participate, you can just raise prices again to make up the difference.
Oyster Fest is an “elitist event”? You must be using the same arcane arithmetic that you used to arrive at the “progressively cheaper” beer conclusion.
1 x 6 + 3 / 1 = $9.
2 x 6 + 3 / 2 = $7.50
3 x 6 + 3 / 3 = $7.00
4 x 6 + 3 / 4 = $6.75
Simple math is arcane? Or maybe you don’t know what progressively cheaper means?
How am I supposed to judge, if I go to a beer-drinking event, that I am legally entitled to drive myself home afterward? Is any provision made for people to be tested so they won’t end up in County Jail for DUI?
((1 x 6) + 3)/1
((2 x 6) + 3)/2
((3 x 6) + 3)/3
((4 x 6) + 4)/3
Grammar is optional in English due to the natural redundancy of language; for better or worse, syntax is not optional in math.
Posting this not as a criticism, but as a heads-up. Please don’t hate me.
OK. 4.
Sorry Jane, but it’s three bucks for a wristband, whether you drink one or six.
Thanks, Mitch. I’m not a mathematician but obviously my clumsy equations made my point, Joel’s inability (or refusal) to understand that it still costs $9 per beer if you drink one and $6.75 per beer if you drink four, notwithstanding.
FYI, your last equation was wrong – should have said +3)/4.
It was a fundraiser, Plain Jane, not a shopping spree for alcoholic mathematicians.
PJ,
9.47.
Antonin,
9:47.
Three bucks for a wristband and six bucks for a beer? And the food prices were outrageous also. This event like so many others in our community have gone shamelessly commercial.
“talk about pimping
Pimping that, pimping what
Pimping yours, pimping mine
Just to be pimping, is a helluva line”
Gosh, a business improvement district is “shamelessly commercial”? Horrors.
Yeah, it’s the new “norm” to overcharge your neighbors during a recession to make money for the downtown businessmen. And then there are the snotty elitist who are proud to screw their neighbors.
And then there are the chronic complainers.
Jeez Joel. I wasn’t complaining about the chronic. In fact, I was not in A*Town for the O Fest, I was there to score some of that World Famous Humboldt Chronic, and at an excellent price too!
I prefer:
(1 X 6) + (3/1)
5:07,
Last I checked, 3 / 1 = 1
Huh? It’s been a very long time since I’ve taken a math class, but I think 3 divided by 1 is 3, or does that have another meaning?
D’oh!
Of course you’re right P.J. In my hasty attempt to mock 5:07, I screwed up. Serves me right!
The all-new Redwood Acres Humboldt Made Fair. Meet, mingle and dine at the $40 per plate Taste of Place dinner. See the midway carnival attractions featuring kinetic sculpture rides, Dell Arte student clowns, Roller Derby Queens, Schatz Lab hydraulic wave kayak simulator and non-profit tabling replacing carny booths. Pitch your dimes into a recycled tofu bucket and win a special community outreach pamphlet. Snack on deep fried chevre wedges, Sushi-on-a-Stick and Pinot Noir Slurpees. Come for the stock car races? They’ve been replaced by the Green Wheels Century where slim, muscular, bicycle commuters duel in grueling 100-mile oval track battles. Fair admission is a sliding scale fee with canned food donation. Canine-partners allowed. (County residents of Oklahoma ancestral origin will be screened at the gate)
Sounds great anonymous at 6:06. Here’s to tra, for admitting his mistake ASAP. Good job on that!
Wow…is the Redwood Acres Humboldt Made Fair for real? Sounds creative and interesting!
The Rewood Acres / Humboldt Made Fair is for real…though I think we can assume that the last sentence of the 6:06 post is a “joke.”
Here’s a link you might want to check out:
http://humboldtmade.com/node/78
The schedule shows the following for Sunday, June 26th:
Kinetic Racers and Roller Derby Women Race around the Track, 1 – 4pm
That does sound like fun!
5:07,
Six of one, 12/2 of the other.
I love parentheses, but putting them around each other as was done earlier is a cause for brackets.
http://humboldtmade.com/node/78
A link so nice, ya gotta post it twice!
Why does the affordability of alcohol have to affect your ability to have a good time and enjoy a community event?
I agree the Oyster Festival prices were too high (so were many of the attendees). But, I like to think of it this way: Free music and dance. Free community social. Free oyster calling contest. Free informational booths. Free kids activities. Free grassy picnic area. Free restroom facilities. Free parking. Free association. Priceless weather and good cheer.