Thanks to all who have posted so far. I'm the executive director of the Downtown Bryan Association. We assumed management of Texas Reds from the City of Bryan this year. It's probably not the best idea I've had to comment on this thread tonight after very little sleep over the past few days, but I've always preferred facts over anything else.
dgonzo - We had 7 ticket booth locations for a total of 14 windows. They were spread throughout the festival area. I can say that by 10:15 a.m. - certainly before 10:30 a.m. - all were open. It took a bit of time to get all the materials to the booths from the command center, so perhaps you just happened to walk past the last few before they became operational. The booths were spread over a 5 block area on Main and Bryan streets. I had a radio in my hand all day, so I know when things became operational. The shuttle stop was exactly where it was posted on the festival map: on 26th St. There was a sign. I know this for sure because I picked up the sign this evening as I was making the rounds to make sure everything was cleaned up. I will also have to dispute your claim that vendors and/or merchants were given conflicting information about opening times. Vendors were given information in advance and it was repeated as they checked in. Store owners were told of the festival hours - in writing - and at no time did DBA ever communicate anything different. We had a large number of volunteers and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of them may have paid less attention to instructions than others. That's the nature of the beast, but I'm appreciative of all who gave up part of their weekend to help out.
montegobay - your perception that the festival was "substantially smaller" is interesting. We had more wineries than ever (30), equal or slightly more arts/crafts/food vendors than in years past, the addition of about 10 craft breweries, and 50+ bands on 5 stages compared to one headline stage in years past. We did shrink the footprint of the festival somewhat so as not to have stretches of empty streets between booths. Perhaps that is why you thought the festival was smaller.
stucco - thank you for your positive feedback, and your complaints will be added to our "to consider" list for next year. Agpup is correct - we did a lot of research to make our tasting packages in line with other festivals, and we were similar in pricing. However, we also need to consider our own market, and if we get overwhelming feedback that we need to adjust pricing, we will do so. As for the online sales, we will definitely evaluate that. We wanted to offer that option, and EventBrite was very easy to use. My only note here is that the fees were clearly stated, so there should have been no surprises for anyone who took that option. I actually advised a caller to our office on Saturday not to take that option since they could purchase at the festival without the fee. We will definitely search for a solution to this.
DeckMe - I can happily report to you that given the large amount of people who bought glassware, we had very few mishaps with broken glass. No one needed stitches.
Here are my other observations about the weekend. We tried very hard to be mindful of the needs of our downtown merchants. Hence, the move to a Saturday/Sunday festival so as not to interfere with Friday customers. I took a bit of time to speak to a group at St. Andrews church this morning, and someone asked if we would consider starting later on Sunday to accommodate the church. We will absolutely look at that for next year. I spent most of the festival hours on a Gator, doing everything from delivering water to stages and ticket booths, to telling those in line at a central ticket booth that they could walk one block over and get tickets quicker because the line was shorter. I talked with many people Saturday and Sunday, including vendors and winery/craft beer people. I specifically asked, how's it going... are you having a good time... can we help you with anything? Overwhelmingly, the response was positive. I don't think they were being nice just because I had on an official shirt and name tag. If anything, I gave them a chance to vent, to make suggestions, to tell me anything they thought should be different. Some did do that, but it was not enough to make them refuse to return again.
Did we do everything right and make everyone happy? Nope - and if someone figures out how to do that, please call me this week and share your formula. Overall, I saw lots of people having a good time and we fielded very few complaints. We do realize the irony of having Texas Reds Steak & Grape Festival when we don't actually offer the opportunity to purchase a steak, although the restaurants were encouraged to offer steak dinners or a steak dish of some kind. The city discontinued the steak event a few years ago, and until we had the benefit of one year under our belt, we weren't willing to take on that expense this first year out. This is another item on our future considerations list.
If you're still reading after this lengthy post, know that we value all feedback - good and bad. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. My contact info is listed here:
http://downtownbryan.com/about/staff/?staff_id=20
Sandy Farris