PETITION - Fest dates & location

[Midnite]

While we realize the Festival dates were changed to accommodate guests, we are expressing our dislike for the selection of the Labor Day weekend, and in some cases with the choice of Brooklyn as the new location.


Please post below if you're interested in signing this petition, and if you'd like to include the location issue please say so.  The minimum personal info needed is your DS Forums username, and it's completely up to you if you'd like to provide more, but only if you're comfortable doing so-- remember that this posting board is NOT private.  Email addresses will be included in the final petition only if you've allowed it be visible on the forums or if you say differently.  You're encouraged to express your opinion in your message-- in other words, why are the dates a hardship for you? (i.e. are you a student or parent of a student?, do you have regular family plans for that weekend?, are you concerned about traveling on those dates?, etc.), or why do you dislike the new location or prefer that the Fest be held in another part of NYC?-- just please be realistic, and above all be polite.

To explain, this petition was begun because several members have expressed that the new dates present a hardship, and in some cases that they'll be unable to attend because of this, but unfortunately the person(s) that made these decisions are not reading our boards and therefore our opinions were not heard by them.  If you don't feel comfortable publicly "signing" this petition, you're welcome to do so in an IM (click on the page & envelope icon in this message) or email your opinion to <Midnite@dsboards.com>.  Also, please feel free to share this post [only] with your friends or on other posting boards and e-lists.  Names will be collected and sent via certified mail to the Festival address as well as Jim Pierson at DC Productions,*** and if you'd like the additional names submitted at the same time please feel free to send them to the above email address, though I'm not in any way trying to discourage anyone else from doing the same on their own and in their own way.  But even if they differ, I do request that you only sign one petition.

If enough fans voice their discontent with the new dates and/or location, at the very least the decision makers will be made aware of how we feel about these matters.

Thanks!


***To be sure that was clear, adding your comments under this message gives your permission for it to be copied for the sole purpose of delivering it along with the others to Jim Pierson and the Festival address.  No one else may copy or quote them for any reason as ONLY this post that begins the topic may be copied and shared.

[ProfStokes]

Thank you, Midnite!  I was hoping that somebody might start such a petition.  

Personally, I don't have any real complaint about the location even though I know that it's inconvenient for people like my family members who wanted to visit the sites of the city.  My main concern is about the new dates.

At first, it was just a matter of waiting an extra two weeks to attend the Fest, but when I realized that it was a holiday weekend and that traffic, travel costs, etc. would be higher, I became even more discouraged.  My family refuses to travel over the holiday weekend, and I don't know if I could handle all of the costs alone.  Also, school begins immediately after Labor Day, which presents another inconvenience.  Many other people that I know will not be going now because they don't wish to travel on a holiday or because of work and/or school.  Not only am I disappointed about missing my friends' company, but it seems to me that the committee's efforts to reschedule the event will suffer because of a lower attendance.

I was really looking forward to this Festival and I'm still hopeful that either the original dates could be made available again, or that a different weekend during the summer could be chosen altogether.  

ProfStokes

[jennifer]

Count me in Fran i just think that the dates are going to be hell driving in from Boston on a holiday W/E
rather be closer to the fest too!

jennifer

[Annie]

Hi, Fran i really don't have a problem with the dates
because i have that Monday off from work as a
company paid holiday.   But can understand how
some others feel though. But if  the dates do
change it's fine with me i'll do anything so people
can enjoy it as well and attend.
Thanks for speaking out.   Love Anne
     

[Raineypark]

I'd like to add my comments to those of the previous posters.

I live in the New York Metropolitan area.  Traveling in and around the city is difficult under the best of circumstances.  Unfortunately, there aren't many weekends in the year that would be MORE difficult than Labor Day.  While I understand the attraction of a 3-day weekend, the additional day is hardly enough to make up for the added  time and money it will cost most travelers to get to the fest.

That weekend is also inconvenient to anyone who has a child going off to college, or a youngster getting ready for the begining of the school year.  And those who CAN get away, usually do so to visit with family and neighbors.

This was to have been my first Festival and I was looking forward to it with great anticipation.  Now, because the dates conflict with prior commitments, I will not be able to attend.  Traveling to and from Brooklyn would not have posed a problem for me personally  because I live locally, but  that only applies to those of us who do.  I would imagine that those who intended to fly would be only slightly less inconvenienced than those who intended to drive, who would certainly bear the greatest hardship of all.

I realize that changing the plans of a Festival of this size is tantamount to changing the course of an Aircraft Carrier......a thing not easily accomplished.....but if it is at all possible to move the dates to an earlier weekend in the summer,  I'm sure a great many unhappy and disappointed fans would be both relieved and grateful.

Raineypark

[Teresa]

Well, the new dates don't cause me too much trouble because I don't have kids to worry about and it is far enough away to rearrange my vacation dates at work. However, it is really going to stink if I don't have anyone there to visit and have fun with.
I plan on going at this point and my only concern would be if they wait 2 or 3 months and then change the dates again. At that point I may not have the flexibility of changing my vacation dates again.

[scout75]

The location is okay, I guess, although if the Fest is held in NYC, I really rather for it to be in Manhattan--especially if it has to be held on Labor Day Weekend. But the date is really what bothers me, since to seems to be a hardship for so many others.

This would be my first DS convention and would personally be disappointed if the Labor Day date meant that it would be a poorly attended event. What would be the point? And where would be the fun without a bunch of people there?

I'm very willing to sign a petition. Midnite, feel free to include my email address on any such document. If you need more personal information for whatever reason, I will be happy to supply that information through an IM.

[Joeytrom]

The location is right over the bridge and one subway stop from Manhattan and it is a safe neighborhood.  I am a native New Yorker, so trust me in what I am saying!!

[jennifer]

The location is right over the bridge and one subway stop from Manhattan and it is a safe neighborhood.  I am a native New Yorker, so trust me in what I am saying!!

i trust you Joey thanks for that info! the location is okay it is the dates that might be hard!Will be my first fest and want to meet so many of the posters here!it would be sad if so many can't attend!

jennifer(after a power nap and on call now!)

[Misty]

Neither location nor date will be a problem for me. I am and have always been flexible when there is something I really am interested in. However, I appreciate the fact that others may find these dates unacceptable. After all, the fans are what make these fests successful. I will hope a date can be reached that is suitable for most.

                                               Misty

[MrsJ]

The fest location is a bit disappointing, but that in and of itself would not prevent me from attending.  I attended my first fest two years ago at the Marriott WTC, and was looking forward to the fest returning to New York.  However, the dates recently selected (Labor Day Weekend) make it impossible for me to go.  I understand many people don't have commitments/children to ready for school that weekend, but I am not among them.  Perhaps the date change was the Marriott's idea and not the organizers'...but I would be appreciative if a date change was considered.

MrsJ.

[Nancy]

I also understand many reasons why Labor Day weekend is not good for many people but the attendance at the festival will not suffer because of it.  It did not suffer in 1987 - I was there - and the fact it was Labor Day certainly did not keep the attendance down that I recall.  In fact, several conventions don't even give their fans/attendees different dates each year - they are scheduled every year on Labor Day weekend.  These are enormous fan/media conventions. One of them is World Con (The World Science Fiction Convention) and Dragon Con.  My understanding is that these conventions are well attended each year in spite of being scheduled on Labor Day weekend.  It must be so since they are repeatedly scheduled for that holiday weekend.  If people did not attend, I doubt the schedule would remain the same.

Nancy

[Midnite]

Well, I'm signing because of the new dates.  I thought choosing Brooklyn was amusing, but the switch to Labor Day weekend was the "critical mass" as far as I'm concerned.  Public schools in my area begin a week before Labor Day, and private schools the day after, and I have a child in each.  My summer vacation is over by the time Labor Day weekend rolls around.

Because of the scheduling change, I'll be missing my first Fest since 1997, and it's doubly disappointing since this was to have been my first visit to NYC since the 9/11 tragedy.  I understand and appreciate that the Festival is willing to accommodate DS guests, but I feel that choosing Labor Day weekend, a time in which airports are routinely congested, travel costs are high, and school is already in session, for an event that was shaping up to be heavily attended is asking too much of the fans.

[MsCriseyde]

Having the Festival over Labor Day weekend is going to make attending a major inconvenience, if not an impossibility, for me because of my dual role as a graduate student and an associate instructor.

Associate Instructor contracts at my university begin on August 15 every year, and we are expected to be in town and available for meetings with faculty members, administrators, etc., and there generally is some last minute wrangling with the bookstore and the reserve desk at the library over texts. The semester begins on Labor Day itself (because this particular university does not observe that holiday).

My friends and I typically arrived in New York on Tuesday or Wednesday and spent a few days in Midtown Manhattan taking in the sights before heading down to Lower Manhattan for the Fest at the WTC Marriott. When the initial dates were announced, we were planning a similar sort of trip, spending the initial days in Midtown and Lower Manhattan before heading to Brooklyn.

Such an extended vacation in New York, which I was truly looking forward to following 9/11, will no longer be possible for me as I cannot take what would be almost a week away from the university once my contract officially starts.

A quick Friday morning through Sunday morning trip would be an option, except that airfare for weekend departure and arrival dates is bound to be astronomical, especially on a holiday weekend, and it seems ridiculous to me to sink such a large sum of money into a quick trip to see the interior of the Brooklyn Marriott when what I had been looking forward to was visiting Lower Manhattan.

Frankly, I think the Fest should've been scheduled in Lower Manhattan again simply because I despise the notion of being driven out of an area by terrorists and contributing to the economic damage they have caused by not doing business with the hotels, restaurants, and merchants in the area. This was part of why it was so important to me this time around to have some time in the city prior to the Festival. I was adamant about spending some money in a store in that area, regardless of what hotel was chosen for the Festival.

However, I really don't care where in the Greater New York area the Fest is held. It could be in Newark for all I care. The major problem is Labor Day weekend. I could make it on any other weekend during the summer, but not that weekend, which really isn't the summer for most people who go to or work at a school anyway.

[Gothick]

Please add my name to those on the petition.  It's out of the question for me to go on Labor Day weekend.  Since there are friends I basically only see at the Dark Shadows Festival, and I really can't afford to fly out to the ones on the West Coast, I am majorly bummed that I am going to have to miss this year's affair.

Steve Shutt