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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
Festival seeks to extend reach
Organizers hoping more suburban residents visit annual SummerNight
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    It’s the biggest invisible festival in the county.
    Despite three years of huge crowds — 7,500 to 10,000 people — for the annual SummerNight festival, the news hasn’t quite reached the suburbs.
    Organizers want the festival to be a countywide affair, drawing residents from as far away as Duanesburg and the Glenville hills.
    They marketed it extensively in the suburbs this year in hopes of increasing suburban attendance. But with less than two days to go, many of the towns’ key communicators were completely unaware of it.
    Town clerks, politicians and residents in Duanesburg and Glenville didn’t even recognize the name of the event Wednesday, and in Rotterdam the normally active senior center was not abuzz with plans to attend, Director John DeGeorgio said. Glenville Town Clerk Linda Neals confessed that she wasn’t aware of any festivals located in Schenectady. “I’ve never really attended anything over there,” she said. Glenville parks Director James MacFarland — who did know about SummerNight, though he hasn’t attended — said town residents are simply too busy to go.
    “There’s just lots to do in the summer,” he said. “Summer sports leagues, baseball — people are living very busy lives.”
    But he also noted that the town’s Freedom Park music concerts are “booming,” and that Collins Park was filled with people for the early Fourth of July celebration.
    So why don’t they cross the river to SummerNight?
    “To my knowledge, I think the publicity’s been good,” he said. “The events are good. People are liking what’s going on in Schenectady. I hear people talk about Bomber’s [restaurant]. But you know, you just can’t be in two places at once.”
    In Niskayuna, the only suburb that still runs a massive town festival, the level of enthusiasm is much higher, Deputy Town Clerk Barbara Nottke said.
    She has been extolling the festival’s virtues and can’t wait for it to begin Friday.
    “I remember one year, they had a sand castle going,” she said. “It was Hogwarts, I think.”
    (The sand sculpture will return this year, though probably not with a Harry Potter theme.)
    Niskayuna officials theorized that many suburban residents don’t attend because the festival is too young to have become a tradition.
    “People know when NiskaDay is. They look forward to it all year,” Niskayuna Parks and Facilities Coordinator Kathleen Gansfuss said. “It will happen in Schenectady too. It’s just a matter of getting it into people’s minds.”
    County events organizer Wendy Voelker is counting on that.
    “We want this to be a premier regional event,” she said. “It is a great way to bring the community together.
    Downtown Schenectady has been the focus of economic development, so we want to bring people there and showcase it.” .............>>>>...............>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01702

Wendy Volker is still employed? Only in Schenectady.

      All you hicks and rubes from the sticks come down to "renaissance" Downtown to see where your $100 million went. In this "renaissance" we close the churches.

      Enjoy a lettuce filled burrito. Rub shoulders with Sal and others "in the know" looking for free greasy pizza fritti. Enjoy the "music" from Radio Disney"?

    

I did attend last year for a short while and it was nice.....looked like a local church festival but with a little more......food was
GREAT,,,,of course......music inside and outside......I did have other plans and had to leave but no complaints.....except
the crowd was VERY THIN......the return on the investment isn't there,,,,,,soon, perhaps......unless one doesn't have a job to spend
$$$......................

couldn't hold an event that big in rotterdam
you would need an assembly permit and a whole lot of insurance  see chapter 180 of the town code
who put that link up?

A soggy flop. While the sheeple got wet, the elite DEMS and press were in the cushy confines of the hospitality suite at the Hampton Inn eating free gourmet food-laughing at the few idiots that showed up. More bread and circuses! Without the circus {instead Radio Disney!}and make the stupid sheeple pay dearly for the wet pizza fritti!

     Last year the horrible County Legislature authorized $300,000 for these idiotic art nights. This soggy flop had to waste over $100,000 in taxpayer funding. For what? "To showcase the wonderful revitalized facade Downtown with no new jobs ...blah, blah, blah".....

     No wonder the Free Clinic can't receive any funds? Being wasted on this and relocating unnecessary nonprofit Bethesda House a few blocks up State Street.

the only thing worse than a $1000 toilet seat is hotel coffee at $100 a gallon

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the only thing worse than a $1000 toilet seat is hotel coffee at $100 a gallon

what would constitute a $1000 toilet seat-----it certainly has to be 'squeeky clean' feeling one gets from taking a crap
through it.....because certainly this is what our elite electorate must feel like......

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Don’t say suburbanites never come to Sch’dy

    As an 18-year Glenville resident, I was very disappointed in the tone of your July 16 article, “Festival seeks to extend reach,” and the quotes of some of the town’s public officials.
    The article was about the upcoming Schenectady County SummerNight festival and the implication by the reporter that people living outside the city of Schenectady don’t come into the city for events.
    My family and I not only attend events like SummerNight, but also are regular attendees of the Sunday Greenmarket, eat in city restaurants, go to the Bow Tie Cinema, patronize Proctors as well numerous other stores, events and activities.
    Also, we are not alone; I recognize many other friends and acquaintances from Glenville and Niskayuna at these events, stores and restaurants. For your reporter to say that the SummerNight festival is invisible to town residents is patently ridiculous; and considering she used such a small sample to reach this conclusion borders on irresponsible journalism.
    To support her erroneous supposition that we town folks don’t go into the city, your reporter quotes Glenville Town Clerk Linda Neals, that she “wasn’t aware of any festivals located in Schenectady” and she “never really attended anything over there.” I don’t know Ms. Neals, but she must be living in a cocoon to be so totally unaware of anything outside her little world.
I know these events are will advertised and promoted, so I have to wonder how a person could not be aware of them. For Ms. Neals to say she doesn’t attend anything “over there” smacks of prejudice and ignorance.
Schenectady is clearly going through a resurgence, and attitudes like your reporter’s and Ms. Neal only serve to keep it from moving forward.

STEVE ACKERMAN
Scotia     

http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00504

Well good for you steve! You just keep on supporting whatever it is that you want.

No need for me to go down there for nuthin'. YUP....I am suburbia and I live 'here' for a reason! I happen to like suburban living. I do not like or feel safe in the city! IMHO

Ackerman (any relation to KRAT leader Donald?) is typical of many idiot cheerleaders. If things are so peachy in the City-move back. LOL! He rather attend Proctor's once a year and say how great it is?

  Between the horrible schools and rubber stamp all KRAT City Council you can't give away property over there. Good luck to the few surviving businesses. Bravo to Town Clerk Linda Neal. Call this flop what it was-bread and circuses-to cover the complete inability of Death Ray to attract ANY blue collar or retail jobs Downtown.

  You want to see revitalization? Throw out Son of Sam, Death Ray and SS Savage and disband the horrible DSIC and Metrograft. Cut the property tax rate 25% Countywide-stop funding Proctor's and stunad Arts Nights-then you will see a comeback. Not before.