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Vendors Concerned About Business At Festivals

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MILWAUKEE - RiverSplash! is over, but Milwaukee’s festival season is just getting started. But if this weekend is any indication of what’s to come, vendors may have reason to be worried about their businesses. It was a tough weekend for vendors. On Saturday, weather in the 40s turned what is normally the busiest night into a bust. Bands played for crowds of less than 30 people. Vendor Mark Krause packed up and left at 4 p.m. because of the weather. “It was like a ghost town here on Saturday,” said Krause, who runs a booth offering teeth whitening. Azmi Alaeddin says in his 11 years selling food at RiverSplash!, he’s never seen it as empty as it was on Saturday night. But the bigger concern for him is that even when the weather was good and the crowd was big, people just weren’t buying anything. “There is little activity out here today, but nothing compares to years before,” Alaeddin said. Alaeddin is the owner and chef for Aladdin Middle Eastern Cuisine. Many vendors point to the economy. Buying food and souvenirs at a festival isn’t cheap, and more people are watching their pocketbooks. But Alaeddin thinks it has more to do with the changing crowds at festivals. “It’s not the economy. It’s the crowd we had. It was a young crowd. They were just hanging. They want to hang somewhere, the crowd was not wanting to spend money,” Alaeddin said. The concern for vendors, many of whom make a living selling to festival crowds, is that it will be like this all summer. “Being in business, you never guarantee anything. You hope the next festival will make it up,” Alaeddin said. But RiverSplash! wasn’t a washout for festival fans. The weather was good on Friday and Sunday and police reported no major incidents, though there were minor crowd problems reported on Friday night. Many people at RiverSplash! said they liked the tougher new security measures, which included bag checks and extra police officers. “I think they’re great. They make it seem like a safe event. You feel like you can come down with your family and not have to worry about trouble,” said parent Bridget Killberg. Some vendors said despite the low turnout on Saturday, business did pick up on Sunday. They said with any festival in Milwaukee, they’re gambling on the weather more than anything else.

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