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Editor, News-Register:
My wife and I, as we do every year, recently attended the Follansbee Community Days festival.
The live music was very enjoyable, and the closing fireworks display remains one of the best in the Valley, as far as we're concerned. Their fireworks are always a highlight of our summer.
However ...
I've lived in Weirton since 1991, long enough to remember what I'll call the "Community Days of Yore," held on Virginia Avenue.
Remember? Back when vendors stretched the length of the street for several blocks. Thousands of people crowded into the narrow thoroughfare, chatting, laughing, and enjoying the music and foods offered by dozens of different vendors, and perusing wares sold by dozens of others.
Whatever happened to that?
Well, I've been told that the residents of Virginia Avenue had long complained about the noise, mess, and inconvenience of those three whole days out of their year--three days that brought a little fun, and some revenue, to their tiny town--and the festival committee got tired of hearing and dealing with it. So, it was moved to its present location, the parking lot adjacent to the old Follansbee Middle School, and the small park behind.
However, since then, the event has been a hollow shell of its former glory. A comparative handful of vendors and options.
The lot isn't conducive to all the vendors and the stage, and to accommodate the crowd. It's just not big enough to do it like the old days.
OK, fine ...
I've always wondered, though, why the entire park isn't utilized, as with the October "Christmas in the Park" craft fair event that's held there. The issue, I'm told, is electricity. Unlike Christmas in the Park, Community Days runs into late evening. Even temporarily electrifying the tree-shaded park would be prohibitively expensive.
However, if I may: in early July, sunset isn't until nearly 10 p.m. Plenty of time for those vendors to pack up.
Maybe sell those spaces, lacking electricity, on a day-by-day basis, at a somewhat reduced rate. They can pay to set up again the next day, if they like.
I understand; the Valley's Old Days are the Valley's old days. Things are different. Population, and the economy, lag far behind the festival's glory days.
Still, there are smaller crafter events, flea markets, fairs, and town festivals all up and down the river, every weekend of the summer. Wellsburg's Apple Fest always seems to have plenty of kiosks. There is no lack of vendors, of which Community Days could avail itself. These just have to be contacted, and properly accommodated. Is the festival committee satisfactorily attempting to do so? Or are they just kind of "phoning it in", now, as I've heard?
Also, I've been told that certain longtime members of the committee are somewhat disobliging, even rude; difficult to work with, even for vendors. This understandably causes disinterest. Perhaps it's time for them to go.
Myself, I see no logical reason why the Follansbee Community Days should suffer the way it is.
Rob Denham
Weirton