A Round Of Thank You's After Our Postponement!
The people of Beacon have been amazing after the Spirit of Beacon Committee postponed the entire day. Not an easy decision, we assure you. Thankfully, you all have been really supportive - of marching in the rain, or delaying as the tropical storm got worse.
“The Spirit of Beacon Day Committee tried to absorb the 50+ Beacon Farmers Market vendors into the closed off Spirit of Beacon Day block (we already have 80+ vendor tables). We tried to put them in our map. Katie had a meeting scheduled with the Farmers Market today (Monday) to see if that would work. And if it did not, the Spirit of Beacon Day was fully prepared to advocate once again that the Beacon Farmers Market and Beacon Flea Market be open for the Spirit of Beacon Day this year, and every year.”
One of the big concerns was what happens to the Farmer’s Market? Both the Farmer’s Market and the Beacon Flea Market are contracted with the City of Beacon to close on Spirit of Beacon Day, because they are in public parking lots. For the two years that Katie Hellmuth has been the chair, she has advocated vocally at meetings with the City Administrator Chris White, Chief Sans Frost and Lt. Jason Walden for the parking lots to be open. Both police officers were afraid of parking issues, having been through the Cupcake Festival parking overcrowding.
Hearing their fear, we agreed to keep the parking lots closed. We noted, however, and Lt. Walden confirmed in 2022, that the DMV lot was maybe 50% full last year. And on any given weekend in Beacon, the DMV parking lot isn’t really utilized by most tourists. But, having gone to the raindate, which may be unprecedented for the Markets’ contract, challenged the contract. Are the markets open the following weekend for the rain date?
The Spirit of Beacon Day Committee tried to absorb the 50+ Beacon Farmers Market vendors into the closed off Spirit of Beacon Day block (we already have 80+ vendor tables). We tried to put them in our map. Katie had a meeting scheduled with the Farmers Market today (Monday) to see if that would work. And if it did not, the Spirit of Beacon Day was fully prepared to advocate once again that the Beacon Farmers Market and Beacon Flea Market be open for the Spirit of Beacon Day this year, and every year.
“The Spirit of Beacon Day fully recommends that this forced closure be removed from both contracts of the Beacon Farmers Market and Beacon Flea Market. We need them. We need both markets to help people move throughout the city. And the markets need regularity to prosper and survive.”
Today we learned from Chris White, after he was presented with several compelling points from the managers of the Beacon Farmers Market of why they should stay open, that he has granted both markets to be open this year, with no promise for next year. The Spirit of Beacon Day fully recommends that this forced closure be removed from both contracts of the Beacon Farmers Market and Beacon Flea Market. We need them. We need both markets to help people move throughout the city. And the markets need regularity to prosper and survive.
We have faith in the people of Beacon that they will be tolerant of parking overflow onto side streets on this day.
Below is the speech in full from Katie, to thank all of the vendors who have been so generous to us with the postponement:
Hello,
I am Katie Hellmuth, Chair of the Spirit of Beacon Day.
Due to the tropical storm that advanced on Saturday, we made the very difficult decision to postpone it to the following Sunday, October 1st.
We the Committee want to thank the people of Beacon who were ready to come out in the rain and to our performers who also were ready to perform in the rain. While it rained on the parade last year, it was sunny(ish) before and after. The following weekend of the rain date was actually worse weather.
We didn't want that to happen again, even though there was sunshine on the following Sunday this time. The forecast was flickering.
When the weather forecast was getting worse on Wednesday, we checked with all of our contract vendors to see if they could continue to the next weekend, and what the financial hit would be.
While the forecast showed some some rain next weekend, we stayed the course.
But the weather worsened on Saturday. We started hearing from people who were packing extra tents to keep the kids covered in any kid activity. We checked with different organizations to get a read on the parents and kids, and as the wind blew, we made the decision to postpone. We didn't know how bad Sunday would be, and the risk was not worth it to us.
Given that we had everything in place for the following weekend, we moved very quickly to alert everyone.
We want to thank Lt. Jason Walden for being at the ready to take our phone call on Saturday and immediately alert the Police and Highway Departments.
We were prepared to take the financial hit of our rentals, but our vendors have been very kind and generous to us.
We want to thank our porta potty company Herring for leaving the bathrooms in place.
Thank you Durrants for charging us only a little extra to leave the stage in place.
Thank you Dutchess County for giving us the bus to route people from the Train Station to Main Street from 11-4:30pm (taking a break from 1-2pm during the parade).
Thank you to all of our performers for being available again!
Table vendors have been amazing. Most are still coming, and we just got a new signup.
Most importantly, the schools, PTAs PTOs, parents and kids. You were ready then, and you said a big YUP when we rescheduled. In fact, one of the first texts I received was: "Thank you! Now, if only Soccer would cancel!"
Regarding the Farmer's Market closing so that the DMV parking lot can be available. The Farmers Market and Beacon Flea vendors take a large financial loss when the market closes for the Spirit of Beacon Day.
For this rain date, the City of Beacon has agreed to let both markets be open in their parking lots. This is huge, and everyone should tell all your friends to park at the MTA Train Station and use the free bus which comes ever 25 minutes.
Next year, both markets should continue to be open, as they are a huge enhancement to the City of Beacon. For those vendors, the weekend markets cover some of their payrolls. So they need to stay open. We tried to configure them in a map within Spirit of Beacon, but the nature of the refrigerated vans several of the vendors need to resupply their inventory, they really need to stay in their same parking lot spot. Regular customers can find them easier also.
Thank you to the Spirit of Beacon Committee. We are blessed to have each other. We keep each other calm, and ask good questions as we sort out logistics. Many thanks to the table and parade map genius who is constantly re-configuring in order to fit in people's requests where we can.
See you next Sunday, October 1st from 11-4pm everyone!