Grassroots of Tarboro

Kim McGinnis and I strolled the Tarboro town commons yesterday passing out T2S information, inviting artisans to particpate in our future events and having a great time looking at all of the marvelous exhibitors.  I'm hoping that some (many) of them join us for future 2nd Saturdays.

The Edgecombe County Arts Council did an excellent job organizing the 37th annual Happening on the Commons.  It looked great, lots of things going on, music, food, art demonstrations, etc.  Click here for more pictures. My only question would be to the exhibitors.  With the cost of gasoline and consumers on a tight budget, I wonder if the event was profitable for those who particpated.  If you had items for sale at The Happening, tell us how you did.  There seemed to be a good crowd. I'm just wondering if they were buying or just looking.

Although The Happening on the Commons doesn't bring much traffic or business to the most of the downtown merchants,  Jennifer and Michael Price, new owners of the Main Street Cafe' took full advantage of the opportunity to find new customers by distributing menus to the fair-goers.  A very smart move on their part for not everyone at a festival wants to eat festival food.  By mid-day the Main Street Cafe' was "happening", too.     

A one or two people have suggested to me that having a 2nd Saturdays event in the same month as the Happening on the Commons, or the upcoming Cantaloupe Festival, or Tarboro History Days may be "too much" and perhaps we should "skip" those months, but I totally disagree.  Can a town have too much fun?  Can we have too many events that attract people to our town?  It is possible, but I don't think we've reached the saturation point yet.   There may be times in the future when Tarboro's 2nd Saturdays fall on the same day as an existing event and we can all work together to create a fantastic experience for everyone who participates and attends.

This brings something to mind that the Tarboro town council had said at this month's town council meeting . They limited our permission to use the court house square to "a month to month basis to allow other organizations the opportunity to utilize the facilities" .   That clearly told me that they do not understand what the GOT members, the Grassroots of Tarboro, are trying to accomplish with these T2S, Tarboro's 2nd Saturdays, events.  If some organization wanted to be doing something in the court house square on the 2nd Saturday of the month ... YIPPEE!!!  That would be one more thing happening on that day and we wouldn't have to do the work organizing it.   I've lived in Tarboro for 3 years. The back door of our building opens onto the court house square, so I'm well aware when there is any sort of activity.  Other than town maintenance workers, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've seen anyone doing anything in that space.  I think it may be safe to say that would not be many times when a 2nd Saturday event might interfere with some other organization using the location. 

Back to the topic ... congratulations to everyone who helped make the Happening on the Commons a success. Congratulations and THANK YOU!