Chamber’s BOB fest draws fire for divisiveness

Trapped between a barricade and the backside of a stage, Todd Rowan walked out of his bar on a dreary Friday night and watched organizers prepare for a two-day festival structured to coerce tourists into downtown Houma.

Rowan’s bar, The Boxer and The Barrel, went on as planned with Art Versus, its monthly celebration of local artists and one of its most profitable nights. But considering the event’s attendance, Rowan surveying his predicament wasn’t an outlandish alternative.

Rowan, who also owns neighboring restaurant The Duke, was in a frustrating situation. The Main Street blockade enforced from 6 p.m. Friday evening until the Best of the Bayou Festival left town Sunday night prevented vehicular access to his businesses. The stage east of his tavern also faced that direction, leaving Rowan out of the party and making it difficult for him to hold his own.

“I’m all about new things coming to Main Street, and I am 100 percent behind festivals,” Rowan said. “(But) that’s completely unfair. It was (at most) 20 or 30 yards; they could have backed that stage up. It absolutely killed my business all weekend.”

Rowan said he learned of his layout limbo that night. He estimated the road closure cost him $1,200 in Art Versus revenue, money that Best of the Bayou’s officials say they will not reimburse.

Poor weather hurt turnout at the inaugural Best of the Bayou Festival, but critics say locals were snubbed and issues surfaced well before the dark clouds arrived.

Everyone involved, whether directly or indirectly, lauded the festival’s premise and potential. Largely structured around 25 musical acts, the two-day festival featured arts and food along a street craving a touchstone event.

Many also contend the event planning was substandard, isolated from stakeholders and slighted local musicians and downtown business owners.

Festival organizers blame a lack of time (planning officially started seven months ago) while conceding they could have taken more steps to communicate with downtown merchants.

“We did try a number of things to communicate, but it’s obviously something we need to ramp up,” said Drake Pothier, the festival’s president. “Some of (the merchants), unfortunately, just fell through the cracks.”

The festival was funded with $175,000 in BP tourism-recovery grant money funneled through Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government. The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce was awarded the project, and the non-governmental organization created a non-profit foundation to manage the festival.

The grant is seed money, and the goal is to create a self-sustaining event that can extend beyond two trial years – this year and next.

Chamber officials said from the beginning that nearly a quarter of its festival budget – about $230,000 after sponsorships and donations – would be dedicated to a regional marketing blitz spanning from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

Pending an audit, the chamber isn’t sure how much money the festival raised and therefore can’t yet forecast how the rain-filled weekend will or won’t impact future years.

Pothier, also the chamber’s president, and Lori Benoit, its special projects director, took the lead in planning Best of the Bayou. Pothier said last week they learned from their mistakes and are committed to improving communication and logistic shortfalls.

“The follow-up meetings we’ve had just among the staff and the leadership, we knew the communication side of things was what we lacked the most,” Pothier said. “It wasn’t a lack of interest or some cases even effort, it was when this thing got so busy, we frankly lost track of time. … I can tell you that, overall, the communication we’ve received from downtown merchants has been extremely positive.”

Pothier said the chamber will reach out to the community and solicit opinions to help shape the festival’s future. The layout could change for next year, but it may be difficult to expand the longer-than-1,500 feet grounds.

The festival’s primary goal, as the grant stipulates, is stimulating tourism. Lafayette’s GIVERS, who boast a national and regional fan base, were slated to be the festival’s headliner. They didn’t show due to travel woes, but Marc Broussard, Cowboy Mouth and Ruthie Foster, other musicians with a regional draw, performed as scheduled.

Like Rowan, other bar owners situated on the festival grounds felt shut out of the planning process and thus feel like their interests were ignored, citing lost revenue on Friday, last-minute schedule adjustments and confusion regarding alcohol sales.

Organizers held one meeting with downtown merchants at the Government Tower. They also went door-to-door during the day, but Pothier said many bar owners don’t keep daylight hours.

On a stretch of Main Street across the festival grounds from The Boxer and The Barrel, the Brickhouse was blessed with a great location. Despite being the longest tenured bar owner on Main Street and despite a stage going up right outside and facing his bar, owner Kendal Brunet was never contacted.

Brunet said he wanted to express gratitude to the chamber for investing effort into bringing a major festival downtown, but he said he was disappointed that his only sources of information regarding the festival were local media until he spoke with a chamber official Friday night as the stage was being erected.

“Had I been made more aware, I would have been more than happy to sponsor or promote (the festival),” he said.

Brunet said he didn’t know beer prices ahead of time, didn’t know what was expected of him as a merchant and wasn’t sure if festivalgoers could tote ice chests. He settled on $3 per beer, which is the same price the festival charged.

Mark Bonvillain, owner of Downtown Balcony and Mahony’s Irish Pub, a pair of barrooms overlooking the Grinage Street stage, turned down an invitation to the entertainment selection committee due to a lack of time.

Still, he wasn’t aware that Main Street would be closed on a Friday night and had to cancel a booked band at the last minute. He echoed a sentiment expressed by other owners: If Main Street is closed, why not hold a locals-only night, which would feature musicians and draw crowds to the merchants?

“I think they’ve got to get with bar owners,” he said, also calling Best of the Bayou “great for business.”

Pothier said set-up must begin Friday evening because of the stages and number of tents that have to be erected along Main Street, adding that the foundation couldn’t afford to add a third day to the festival in its first year.

The last time Main Street was barricaded was for filming of “The Butler.” In that case, producers reimbursed business owners with lost revenue. Some businesses were also reimbursed when “The Hot Flashes” filmed earlier this year, though only one lane of Main Street was closed then.

“There’s no wiggle room in the budget for (reimbursement),” Pothier said. “Hopefully as a result of the festival they had some traffic they wouldn’t normally have.”

In addition to the merchants’ woes, local participating bands, who were paid to perform, were disappointed to learn they had to pay a fee to sell merchandise. Organizations that specialize in hosting downtown festivals were not approached.

Rowan invited local bands to sell their merchandise at The Boxer and The Barrel. One band’s lead singer remarked that with sparse attendance during the group’s set and anticipated rain for the rest of the weekend, he didn’t believe his band could sell $50 worth of gear.

“I just feel like they were trying to scam money any way they could from the locals,” said Rowan, a touring musician for much of his life.

Pothier said the fee was imposed on all musicians as a way to raise money to support future iterations.

“We have to see it as a fundraising opportunity,” he said. “If they want the festival to continue to happen, we have to raise funds in every possible way. Even that kind of decision can be revisited.”

Friday’s Main Street closure also caused the cancellation of Downtown Live After Five, a monthly concert on the courthouse steps.

Anne Picou, the Live After Five organizer, said she had originally hoped the concert could serve as a kick-off to the festivities, but she made an announcement early in September that it would have to be cancelled.

Picou, also the Main Street manager for the Downtown Development Corporation, said she had no involvement with Best of the Bayou.

“We had nothing to do with it,” she said. “We weren’t asked to participate.”

Neither was the Houma Regional Arts Council, which hosts Houmapalooza. The bi-annual, all-original and all-independent music festival schedules 10 bands to perform from the downtown Houma courthouse steps over the course of a Saturday.

“I don’t know if we seemed like a natural fit,” said Glenda Toups, the council’s executive director. “I was never really approached to come to the table and talk about stuff. We’ve got a lot of other stuff to do, so I’m not going to go force myself on any thing.”

The arts council did participate in judging the festival’s poster contest, Toups said.

The lack of outreach wasn’t lost on the chamber.

“We’re going to make a concerted effort next year to try to involve more groups,” Pothier said.

Even with a relatively short planning period, organizers had high hopes for the festival. The rain prevented reality from meshing with expectations, Pothier said, but said he feels it was a success.

“I’m still very pleased and proud of the event we put on,” Pothier said. “You come to terms that not everybody is going to be pleased with everything that’s happened. It was a first time event. It was a huge event. The people putting it on had the best intentions.”

Rowan, too, tried to make the best of an unpleasant situation. On the festival’s first day, The Boxer and The Barrel hosted 13 bands in what was dubbed the Mega Mondo Show. It also gave a stage multiple bands on Sunday.

Alas, on Monday, Rowan walked outside his bar only to be faced with another affront.

“The cleanup crews used my Dumpsters,” he said.

Pookie and Lucy Anselmi watch country folk musician Clay Parker at Best of the Bayou. Todd Rowan, owner of The Boxer and The Barrel and The Duke (background), is one of downtown Houma’s business owners that claim the festival isolated merchants.

FILE PHOTO