Outside Erie

10 Responses to “Rate CelebrateErie”

1. Ron
   August 18th, 2008 at 6:29 am

   Well, I can tell you what missed - Vendor prices. There’s no way I’m paying $4.00 for some little tray of french fries. I know they’ve got to make money, but it’s just a bit ridiculous.

2. *kc
   August 18th, 2008 at 7:29 am

   The weather was a fantastic HIT! (for the first time in several years).

   And a big thanks to all of the restaurants who set up shop for Taste of Erie. SO YUMMY! and very appreciated by all the Erieites looking for non-greasy food.

3. Dale Hannah
   August 18th, 2008 at 7:30 am

   More local Restaurants should be included in Taste of Erie, and maybe move the out-of-town vendors farther away. I found the Restaurant prices to be more in line with reality. Dump the fee differential charged by CelebrateErie for ‘Fine Dining’ providers.

   Promote more Erie area bands to headliner status, and forget about the high-priced touring groups. Money could be better spent elsewhere, and besides, this is CelebrateERIE!!!!!!

   More porta-johns covering the entire area, to help local businesses avoid problems with messy festival-goers using their facilities.

   Overall, an excellent job of organization. Congrats to the City of Erie for a job well done.

4. George Vietze
   August 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am

   The event was extremely well organized. There were plenty of very clean restrooms available the childrens area had plenty of free fun attractions to keep children occupied and happy. The crowds the two days I attended we very well behaved, the music was varied to fit many tastes and the world famous trampoline exhibit was very timely with the Olympics as expert trampoline artists put on a professional exhibit.

   The one thing that was noticable to me, was the relative lack of attendance for the size of our community. Maybe I am just too new here
   or maybe the Crawford County Fair pulled a lot of people but I noticed there were not as many larger food vendors and my guess is that the timing of this event conflicted with larger events or that decreased attendance contributed to them not in attendance.

   The weather was beautiful the food was good and the music was very much appreciated, the street “chalk astists” was very good and while it was plesant not being overly crowded I hope the City of Erie continues these type of community events and that more of the community shows up to appreciate the huge effort that must have went into making this look as if it were smooth, easy, clean, efficient and professional as it appeared to me.

5. Wizo
   August 18th, 2008 at 8:31 am

   Overall, excellent show. Great headliner for Saturday night, or at least, a great fit for Erie. I agree with Dale, more local restaurants would be nice. Some of the kiosks on the East side of the Square were jammed together too close.

   It would be nice to see average Erieites become more engaged with what downtown Erie has to offer. It is nice to see everyone walking State Street; but are they drawn into to any of the shops/restaurants/museums/dance studios/etc? Also, is it time to think of expanding to the rail overpass @ 14th? With the Calamari’s, Cellblock, Twelve O One, Sugar Rays, Junior’s, Brewerie, and the ever-popular Adult Mart, on top of the Mercantile/townhouse projects, it should at least be investigated. I know 12th poses as a hurdle, but many people are crossing it anyway.

   Great progress!

6. bojosmom
   August 18th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

   We attended Celebrate Erie and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. On Saturday we indulged in “grazing” the Tast of Erie sampling foods from Latinos, Theodores, Pufferbelly, and Bertrands. The prices were a bit high for the serving sizes in my opinion, but the quality of the food was how you say? ~ Magnifique!!!! The chalk art was interesting and some very well done. I especially liked the Giant Eagle brighly colored animals, The Erie Community Foundation’s Old Sailor, Young Boy and Dog looking out to the lake with the clipper ship asail and the heart with the children silohouettes encasing red hearts on a black and white background. I sent photos to my grandchildren to inspire their artistic drawings on the sidewalks of Kansas.
   On Sunday afternoon, I volunteered to help register voters and worked with a few young bright articulate political interns who made me believe in the U.S. election system again. It was great to see and hear them and the excitement in their voices about the upcoming elections. Erie people that we approached were very polite and I was impressed how many of you all are all ready registered to vote.[I hope you weren’t just saying it to avoid the hassle]. But over the three and one half hours I was there at the table, myself and four volunteers registered at least thirty new voters! Yea! There were those cynics out there who needed some discussion on why they needed to cast their ballots but what was refreshing was how many people listened and spoke their opinions and got involved in the process. I hope this enthusiasm carries over to the general election. No matter who your choice for President and other elected office may be , please VOTE.
   After volunteering, we walked down and listened to Next of Kin and the crowd seemed a bit sparse but began to pick up towards the end of their set and during the next band, North of the Mason Dixon [aka NoMaD] . We didn’t stay for the headliner but it looked like a good crowd was forming.
   Heard the fireworks from our house. but was too tired to actually see them.
   I guess, my only complaint would be the overflowing trash receptacles that I saw on Tenth St.. and people littering.
   all in all, a good time. can’t wait for next year.

7. Heather
   August 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

   Sadly, the only part of CelebrateErie I made it to this weekend was the Hamot 10K (always awesome!) and the Fireworks on Sunday night which were simply fantastic!

   We parked by the library and walked down to Dobbins Landing just to see how close we could get. We got close. We say right on the wall by the water in front of the Sheraton and the show was worth the walk (and the 20 minutes it took to get out of the parking lot after).

   They had fireworks shooting from all sides of the tower…from the top of the tower, the platform in front of the tower….just firing off from everywhere and it was spectacular.

8. Mike
   August 18th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

   I thought it was well done, though I wish people would realize that trash belongs in a trash can, not along the street.

   There was a nice variety of food from Steel City to Latinos to Pufferbelly. It’s nice to get to try all the mom and pops- that’s where the real food of Erie is, not at a cookie cutter chain.

   I thought it had a variety of things to do for everyone. Thumbs up for me.

9. Ed Tonkin
   August 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

   Our family went down Saturday evening. Couldn’t have had better weather! We enjoyed food from Colony Pub, Bertrands, and Smith’s. Last year we sampled from Pufferbelly and a couple of others.

   We always love the chalk walk and enjoyed the indoor exhibit this year with hopes that will expand next year. Good group of sponsors although I think this year’s artists were not as inspired as previous years.

   Great time watching the trampoline troupe. Had seen them last summer at GE Transportation Family Day and they were just as good. Sorry we didn’t see the fireworks on Sunday.

   Some suggestions for improvement:

   1. It would be nice to be able to taste a little bit of everybody’s cuisine, but the price would be prohibitive for a family to do that. Is there a way that they could sell a strip of tickets good at all Taste of Erie vendors and after receiving the food from the vendor they would punch the ticket for that vendor and you could go on to the next one. Ticket price would be about $40 which would make it easier for families to sample a little bit of each Taste of Erie course.

   2. People need to put their garbage into the can (not just near it). This distracts from the overall enjoyment of the event and food area. This has to come from the attendees. Everyone shouts that they’re Green, well prove it! Keep the celebration clean.

   3. And this includes language. Don’t talk trash or throw it. There are many younger children at this event. We need to reduce the corseness of society, most people would agree, so let’s start at all public events.

   4. This proves I’m a real stick-in-the-mud, we need to dress better at such events. Clean clothes and maybe something other than old T-shirts should be the unofficial dresscode at Erie functions. Having us locals look better might encourage out-of-towners to return for future events. I know I’m a crumudgeon, however, if we respect ourselves and our town/city then that will provide a better atmosphere for all festival goers.

   5. There were folks trying to register people to vote. They worked very hard at it and we need more people with civic enthusiasm to keep our republic strong. Couldn’t the festival committee have found a more prominent location for this booth? For crying out loud it is an election year, and an extremely important one, so I feel this booth should have been where all could see it.

10. Joe Erie
    August 21st, 2008 at 11:32 am

    The headliners at Celebrate Erie this year: a motown cover band, a country singer that no one has ever heard of, and essentially a Foreigner cover band (only one original member - the keyboardist/guitarist). These are headliners? You gotta be kidding me. That is a piss poor lineup if I’ve ever seen one… has to be the worst lineup ever. Once again, too bad for Erie.