Tag Archives: Quirky Civic Events

Not Supporting Feast Of Lanterns, Moe Rewrites History

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Ammar & his chamber recreates another “Good Old Days” event at the beach one week after the real Chautauqua celebration of music & food should have been there (but is not this year..). It’s nothing by a money grabbing fleece the tourists from Fresno plot, not a community summer get together. What an insult.

Feast Of Lanterns 2010

“It’s a splendid celebration of Pacific Grove’s turn-of-the-century band festivals that livened the entire town,” he said. “The chamber is reviving the party that was first held in 1879 by the California Branch of the Chautauqua Circle.”

In those days, he said, the Chautauqua Circle celebrated with music, food and entertainment at Lovers Point.

What the what? No Belly Dancers?

Feast Of Lanterns 2002

Not Supporting Feast Of Lanterns, Moe Rewrites History

City Bends Over To Political Correctness

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Suspicious that this is the reason that the traditional campy Feast Of Lanterns is now held indoors to ticket holders?

Low-Sabado hasn’t forgotten that history, but the city has done little to recognize it. P.G.’s annual Feast of Lanterns replicates Chinese squid-boat lights and adopts a generic Asian theme, but doesn’t acknowledge the Point Alones village – an omission that was the focus of a recent Stanford dissertation.

Low-Sabado takes particular offense to the event’s annual play about a fictional Chinese princess, in which the audience boos the mandarin. (This year’s celebration will be scaled back; organizers cite budgetary reasons.)

Toms Cafe Tribune 750101
P.G. Tribune, 1974

City Bends Over To Political Correctness

Good Old Rainy Days

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Moe, what happened to the Benz?

Chamber of Commerce president Moe Ammar, mounted in an electric car, rallied his troops under lowering clouds and the threat of high winds and rain that had already driven away a block’s worth of craft vendors’ booths on Lighthouse Avenue.

Most craft vendors reacted to a memo sent by Ammar Saturday that the county Office of Emergency Services predicted heavy rains and winds of 40 mph to 50 mph beginning at 5a.m. Sunday by folding their tents and stealing away in the night.

By 10 a.m., no storm had materialized.

God Rained Out

By noon, it was pouring.

Good Old Rainy Days

Good Old Days 2010 – Wet, Cold, Windy

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God Rainy Days

Sunday rain closed down most of the ‘days by noon. Saturday was cold. Parade was so-so. Was better in the real good old days . .

It started with a group of women getting together in downtown Pacific Grove to exchange recipes over tea and cookies.

Within a few years, local merchants caught on that the annual gathering could be a good thing for the community, and they began setting up booths and organizing events. Pacific Grove’s spring festival continued to grow until, 53 years later, Good Old Days is not only the city’s biggest event, but the largest vending event in Monterey County.

Good Old Days 2010 – Wet, Cold, Windy

Time For Pacific Grove Good Old Days

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Stupid Chamber Of Commerce forgot to mention the parade. Too busy having orgasms in the back office.

Pictures from barovelli.com

Balloon platoon
..
GOD fried fries

Pacific Grove’s annual community event will be April 10 to 11. Good Old Days will feature more than 240 vendors from 12 states displaying arts, crafts and other wares. There will also music, entertainment and 30 food booths at the street fair, the largest arts and crafts gathering in Monterey County.


Time For Pacific Grove Good Old Days

Feast Of Lanterns Fate Is Sealed (hint: it’s 90% canceled)

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Destiny being fulfilled. Bankrupt the events that are the heart & soul of what’s fun about P.G. then turn it into some preachy politically correct show that no one really wants to go to. Finally bring it back all sanitized. About as genuine as a Victorian retreat house torn down, re-constructed with zero original material and awarded a historical artifact sign.

Empty FOL beach

But hey, without the cost of putting on the week long summer festival, we can pay for a new website, city slogan and a tourist trolley, right?

There will still be a Queen Topaz and her court, but no fireworks. The pageant will take place in the middle school auditorium, not at the Lovers Point Pier. The festival will run two days, rather than a full week.

“Some events are being dropped,” said Feast of Lanterns president Sue Renz, “and others restructured.”

Feast Of Lanterns Fate Is Sealed (hint: it’s 90% canceled)

Racists Burned Down Chinatown, Celebrate Every Year

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“Historian” says Feast Of Lanterns being multicultural is egg-foo-young in the face. Feast of Lanterns does an about face and plays down the whole multicultural thing.

They fished for squid using lighted boats on moonless nights, Lydon said. The lights of the boats on the bay were a tourist attraction, “like Christmas decorations on the ocean.”

Those lighted boats may well have inspired Pacific Grove’s annual Feast of Lanterns at Lovers Point, where an ersatz Chinese pageant is re-enacted.

Racists Burned Down Chinatown, Celebrate Every Year

Feast Of Lanterns Is Celebration Of Burning Down Chinese Camp

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Words from Sandy Lydon, elitist historian.

The May 17, 1906 blaze that swept through most of the Chinese village at Point Alones seared not only the landscape of the Monterey Peninsula, but the memories and histories of its people. The fire continues to loom as some kind of Original Sin whenever there are discussions about this remarkable Chinese village tucked into the cove on Pacific Grove’s eastern boundary.

What emerged was a festival that replicated the lights of the squid boats that had been driven away. Some members of the Chinese community find the resulting festival offensive. The Feast of Lanterns folks respond that their event has nothing to do with the Chinese village.

Feast Of Lanterns Is Celebration Of Burning Down Chinese Camp

Lisa “Bare It” Bennett Asks To De-fund Those “Quirky Civic Events”

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Where would $25,000 be better spent, Feast Of Lanterns support or a new slogan to attract tourists?
Lisa is going out with a bang, too. Article states that Bennett is not planning to run for council this year.

Pacific Grove Councilwoman Lisa Bennett took aim this week at city sponsorship of two annual events she termed sacred cows, saying the city should not automatically underwrite them as it has in the past.

The annual Good Old Days festival and the Feast of Lanterns cost the city more than $40,000 through added police and fire protection as well as other city staff services, she said.

Lisa “Bare It” Bennett Asks To Defund Those “Quirky Civic Events”

Let’s Spend $$ On A New Slogan To Attract More Tourists?

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While library hours dwindle.

I wonder what the approval % would be like if there was a vote to spend revenues on attracting tourists.

Pacific Grove has an identity crisis, city leaders say. Butterfly Town USA, America’s Last Hometown and other catch phrases have left P.G. with an amorphous identity that fails even to hint at the city’s greatest attraction: its stunning coastline.

The city also has a calendar of quirky civic celebrations such as the Feast of Lanterns and the Good Old Days that make it a hard place to pin down. And that’s made it difficult to market Pacific Grove to tourists, the city contends. A recent study even suggested visitors are not aware of Pacific Grove and the attractions it offers.

Anyway – the best slogan is the truth – “Pacific Grove, For The Newly Wed & The Nearly Dead”

Let’s Spend $$ On A New Slogan To Attract More Tourists?