CivicFest vendors are asking for their money back

Jennifer Simonson, Star Tribune

CivicFest, which features a replica of the White House, attracted about 50,000 people.

Participants in the Minneapolis event say they took a bath because turnout was far below what organizers had projected.

By LORA PABST, Star Tribune

Last update: September 7, 2008 - 11:49 PM

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Vast crowds of people visited the metro area last week during the Republican National Convention, but vendors at a public exhibition aimed at attracting those visitors say the crowds never reached their event.

The vendors at CivicFest, a patriotism-themed festival held last week at the Minneapolis Convention Center, are now asking the convention's host committee to refund their $2,500 booth fees and other costs associated with attending.

About 70 vendors participated in CivicFest, hoping to sell patriotic items ranging from hats to pillows. Many of them said they were told that CivicFest would attract 150,000 visitors during its seven-day run, but near the end of the week only about 50,000 people had attended.

"There were hours on end where I never saw anybody," said Conrad Larson, a vendor from Moorhead, Minn., who was selling a book about a Minnesota World War I veteran. "I can't believe how misled I was."

Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the host committee, said the organization hasn't had any official communication with the vendors about their request for a refund.

"I understand there is some disappointment there," she said. "And as the host committee, we are certainly concerned about that ... and we hope to have a resolution by the end of this week."

Last week, CivicFest organizers and members of the Minneapolis St. Paul 2008 Host Committee, which sponsored the event, said they responded to vendors' concerns during the week by moving entertainment into the marketplace area, posting additional signs and changing the exit point, all in an attempt to draw more traffic to vendors.

The organizers sent a letter to vendors last week saying they would look into concerns "in a fair and reasonable way."

But the vendors, who came from Minnesota and other parts of the country, said the changes were made too late to have any impact. They also questioned the expected attendance numbers and the efforts made to publicize the event.

In a letter to the Star Tribune, a group of vendors said their main concerns were with the layout of the exhibits and booths and the lack of publicity. While they acknowledged that participating in the event was a business decision with risk, they said that they didn't get a chance to compete for sales because an official gift shop blocked the entrance to the marketplace area.

"The flow was obviously designed to maximize the benefit to the CivicFest Company, to the detriment of us little guys," the letter said.

Larson and other vendors said they won't rest until they receive compensation or a public apology from the event's organizers.

"There was no attempt to try to make it successful for those of us who funded it," Larson said.

Lora Pabst • 612-673-4628

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