Summer festivals bring hundreds of artists, musicians and vendors into East Lansing's downtown — along with thousands of customers who give business a welcomed boost.
The city's three major summer festivals, East Lansing Art Festival, Summer Solstice Jazz Festival and Great Lakes Folk Festival, will bring more than 170,000 people downtown, festival organizers said.
"We drive a lot of traffic downtown through events in the summertime," said Tim Dempsey, East Lansing's economic and community development administrator.
The art festival offered organic food for the first time through the Green River Café, 211 M.A.C. Ave.
Partnering with one of East Lansing's biggest events helps local business owners feel like a part of the community, said Jim Jabara, owner of the Green River Café.
"You're not just like an island on your own, you move out into the community, move outside and change your space a little bit," he said.
The café received an increase in business from hungry festival attendees who wanted to test the new restaurant or did not want to wait in long lines.
"We're getting a lot of people in here that we haven't seen before" Jabara said.
Some businesses didn't do as well as in recent years because of the weekend's unseasonably cool weather.
"The art festival always brings lots of people to the area," said Lisa Belen, manager of Melting Moments, 313 E. Grand River Ave. "When it's cold and 50 degrees, people don't want ice cream."
Business was better Saturday than last year, but business was bad Sunday for both years, Belen said.
"It's been a long time since there was a good Saturday and Sunday for the art festival," she said.
All three festivals try to draw new visitors every year, but they see a large percentage of return visitors since the events have a designated weekend each year.
"The festivals make East Lansing more of a destination in the summer," said Ami Van Antwerp, East Lansing's communications director.
The East Lansing Art Festival
Embracing change, the East Lansing Art Festival broadened its horizons by including hip-hop music and organic food for the first time, said Sharon Radtke, East Lansing's arts program coordinator.
The city hosts a total of eight festivals during the course of the year. The art festival bring in between 70,000 and 80,000 people, Radtke said.
"Festivals showcase all the different talents that the city has to offer," she said. "Everything from art to film and theater. We've created something for everyone."
It's difficult for the city to assess attendance or revenue, because the festivals are all free to the public, Van Antwerp said.
Evaluating how much parking is used and aerial photography are helpful ways to estimate attendance, Radtke said.
On Saturday, all but 30 of the city's 1,900 garage parking spots were filled during the day, said Dan O'Connor, East Lansing's parking administrator. The amount of revenue parking generated won't be tallied until later in the week. "That is a good indicator that our numbers are up," Radtke said.
To help the downtown, the festival partners with East Lansing businesses in two ways. The festival organizers give downtown restaurants first choice for spots in the food court. Businesses also sponsor art awards, as well as the festival itself, Radtke said.
The staff of the art festival does a marketing survey every five years - data from the 2005 survey shows that about 29 percent of festival attendees are from outside of the Ingham, Clinton and Eaton county area, Radtke said.
However, these numbers may have been different this year.
"We actually have been marketing more to out of state people in recent years," she said.
A portion of the festival's promotional budget goes to outlets such as Michigan Public Radio in an attempt to reach people from other parts of the state, Radtke said.
The Summer Solstice Jazz Festival
"The jazz festival kicks off our whole summer events program for the city," Van Antwerp said.
In its 11th year, the festival has partnered with the Wharton Center and the MSU Jazz Studies Program.
The festival also will occupy a larger space downtown this year.
The jazz festival is the smallest of East Lansing's summer festivals, with between 6,000 and 7,000 attendees.
"The jazz festival is on a smaller scale," Van Antwerp said.
The festival does not have a large advertising budget, so it relies primarily on its Web site and word of mouth to recruit festival-goers.
Unlike the two larger festivals, the jazz festival allows only downtown businesses to participate in its food court, in addition to providing sponsorship.
The Great Lakes Folk Festival
To conclude the summer events season, East Lansing hosts the Great Lakes Folk Festival during the second weekend of August.
Approximately 90,000 people attend the festival, with about 30 percent traveling from outside the tri-county area, said Lora Helou, communications director for the festival and the MSU Museum.
The museum partners with the city and other sponsors to put on the festival, Helou said. The city underwrites the music portion of the festival, which includes more than 50 performances on five stages.
"It's a three-day celebration of culture, tradition and community," Helou said. "We really try to explore our rich cultural heritage."
Staff writer Jennifer Orlando contributed to this report.
Sarah Norris can be reached at norriss3@msu.edu.
