This page was exported from The Auroran [ http://www.newspapers-online.com/auroran ] Export date:Thu Jan 29 3:45:46 2026 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: INSIDE AURORA: Burning Questions --------------------------------------------------- Burning Questions on the Aurora Street Festival By Scott Johnston Well, that was another terrific Street Festival a couple of Sundays ago. Hats off to the gang at the Chamber of Commerce for another job well done. But although we should be familiar with this event after all these years, it does raise some questions, such as: Why is it that no matter how awful the forecast is for the day of the festival, the weather is always great? Were the Newmarket Jazz Fest and Aurora Music Festival booths set so close to each other on purpose? Based on the number of booths representing them on Sunday, just how many dozens of karate and martial arts schools are there in Aurora, anyway? How much distance does the average Street Fest attendee need to cover to walk off all of the calories they consume in fudge, popcorn, ice cream and all things deep fried? With the event so popular, and the booths all sold out in advance, why are there always so many unused spaces, where vendors haven't bothered to show up? And does this annoy potential vendors who unsuccessfully applied to participate after all the available Street Fest spaces were sold out? Why don't more residents harken back to the Street Fest's original mandate, and use this as a garage sale opportunity? What percentage of the spruce trees handed out each year actually get planted? Every year the attendance is quoted as being around 50,000, but how was this number originally calculated, and why does it never seem to change? Especially after wandering around a while, or with a drink and food in hand, doesn't it make you think how nice it will be when some additional streetscaping takes place along Yonge and there are more benches and other places to sit? Why is it that no matter how carefully you look at the booths on both sides as you head in one direction, when you walk back the other way you always see vendors that you missed? Have you ever attended a Street Festival, and not run into someone you know? If the event sells out each year, is there the demand and opportunity to add more booths and activities, and expand the length of Yonge Street that is part of the Festival, perhaps further south to Henderson? Did you notice that all of the really busy booths were ones where the vendor was actively focused and engaged with customers, whereas the really quiet booths were the ones where the vendor was actively focused and engaged with their smartphone or other electronic device? In all the other 364 days of the year combined, would a typical storefront shop on Yonge Street see anywhere close to 50,000 people walking by? Why is it that you are constantly offered and decline reusable cloth tote bags as you walk by various booths, but once you buy something bulky or awkward to carry, you can't find anyone who's giving the bags away? It is unlikely that all 50,000 plus Aurorans attended the street festival, so what percentage of the attendees were from out of town? And how many more people would attend if there was significant advertising outside of Aurora? Based on how many seemed to be on Yonge Street, are there ever any dogs in Canine Commons the first Sunday of June each year? Has there ever been a newspaper article published about the Festival that did not include a photo from somewhere near the library looking down the length of Yonge Street at all the crowds? Just asking. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2013-06-14 23:09:58 Post date GMT: 2013-06-15 03:09:58 Post modified date: 2013-06-27 01:20:30 Post modified date GMT: 2013-06-27 05:20:30 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com