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Gary Rydell, owner of Rydel's Healthy Home on Lodi Avenue, and customer service representative Kelli Tap talk about the Big Green Egg, a green barbecue, smoker and baker, at the Lodi Street Faire on Sunday. Rydell had his booth in a new section of the Street Faire, Green Avenue. (Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel)
Additions to Lodi Street Faire impress, but chamber seeks improvements for next year
The Lodi Chamber of Commerce tried some new things at Sunday's Street Faire — Green Avenue, an International Bazaar and a fine arts street.
Most of Pine Street between Church and School streets was known as "Green Avenue," featuring heating and air conditioning companies, solar heating companies, a University of California Master Gardener and people peddling dual pane windows.
However, Ryan Rielley, of Fair Oaks, peddling heat-absorbent screen doors, was disappointed that he didn't get the foot traffic he expected. He saw scores of people walking down Church Street, but none of them came his way.
"For a first year (having Green Avenue), I think we did OK," Chamber President and CEO Pat Patrick said.
But Patrick said he heard the same concerns. The chamber will try to get some battery-powered cars at next year's Street Faires in May and October to attract more people toward the vendors, he said.
The new attractions drew more than 30 vendors to Green Avenue, 14 to the International Bazaar on Walnut Street east of School Street, and 10 to 12 in the area designated for fine arts.
Some 555 vendors participated in the 10-block Street Faire, which typically closes vehicle traffic to Downtown Lodi. Due to the mild weather, Patrick estimates that 40,000 people attended the faire.
One of the more unusual vendors on Green Avenue comes from Downtown Lodi. Kelli Tap, a customer service representative at Rydel's Healthy Home, sold what she described as non-toxic green cleaners, baby shampoo, air purifiers and Big Green Eggs, a barbecue in which you can also smoke and grill foods.
The International Bazaar featured booths offering a Chakra Analysis body remedy, jewelry, art, clothing and other items. One of the more unusual vendors was Bogolani Designs, an Oakland business that sells items hand made by the Baule people from the Ivory Coast of western Africa. Items included clothing, purses, a leather laptop computer cover and a wooden door with intricate carvings.
Patrick said he hopes to add some entertainment from different parts of the world for the International Bazaar.
"We tried to do it this year, but couldn't get it done," he said.
Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.
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chets808 wrote on Oct 5, 2009 9:17 PM:
Why dont you sell sausages in your big green egg ? Or is that not green...kinda brown. Or ham. Sell ham in the morning and you can say its green egg's ham.
salted cured meats sell ! "
dyan wrote on Oct 5, 2009 8:30 PM:
sooziesdad wrote on Oct 5, 2009 5:24 PM:
sooziesdad wrote on Oct 5, 2009 5:22 PM:
Lodian wrote on Oct 5, 2009 2:47 PM:
Robb wrote on Oct 5, 2009 2:28 PM:
cheeto wrote on Oct 5, 2009 2:13 PM:
And Ryan, you begging for more people to come your way would be like if someone was selling hot dogs right next to "Lockeford Sausage" and then complained that not enough people came to their booth. You know what that person needs to do? They need to make better hot dogs. Or, if Ryan was in charge, then there would be some rule that there needs to be an equal amount of interest in every booth, so as not to hurt any feelings.
In conclusion, Ryan, if you want to see more people at your booth, then you need to "make better hot dogs". (Or go see that new Michael Moore movie and cry to all of your friends about how evil capitalism is.)
Love,
Cheeto "
cheeto wrote on Oct 5, 2009 2:12 PM:
The food booths were also between the two main streets. In fact, there were two such streets full of food. And you know what? Both streets had a lot of foot traffic. You know why? Because a lot of people like funnel cakes and sausage.
You know why the "Green Avenue" didn't have a lot of foot traffic? Because not very many people were interested. You said that you saw scores of people walking down Church Street, but "none of them came your way". That's because as soon as people saw "Green Avenue", they purposely didn't walk down that street. At least that's what I did. To me, it was as if the sign that said “Green Avenue” actually said “Walk down here if you want to see a bunch of booths that suck”. "
Lodian wrote on Oct 5, 2009 12:52 PM:
weezer wrote on Oct 5, 2009 12:46 PM:
If you build "it," they will come. "
Lodian wrote on Oct 5, 2009 12:35 PM:
Jerome R. Kinderman wrote on Oct 5, 2009 9:07 AM:
And there are others (like me) who believe that the ballyhoo over the earth falling apart is simply nonsense. I submit that had any of these booths been erected on Church or School Streets they would not have enjoyed much more attention than they received on Pine. Maybe if Al Gore had been present things would have been different; but who knows? Even such a celebrity like Al might not have made much of an impression. "
T & C wrote on Oct 5, 2009 8:10 AM:
Comments on this story are now closed.