I was wondering approximately how many people attend the fests each year? Is it over 1000?
Maybe it doesn't matter since it looks like a lot of people won't be going, but the Brooklyn Marriott only has 376 rooms (!). The WTC Marriott had over 800 rooms. Just thought I'd mention it 'cause if you are planning to go, I'd reserve a room now. LOL
The festival attendance has been in the thousands at times and since so many people live in the NYC area just come for the days during that weekend (they don't pay money to stay overnight) the problem has sometimes been curtailing the amount of people who attend on any given day. The last New York Festival was "sold out" on Saturday because the hotel told them they could only have so many people in the ballrooms, etc. I saw that the Brooklyn Marriott has a parking capacity for 1,100 vehicles and there are eating facilities in and around the hotel. The Newark Marriott, IIRC, doesn't have very much in the way of eating facilities (or at least it didn't used to). When the festival was in Newark, people complained about that and rightfully so. Not everyone can afford room service for each meal.
I really don't understand all this since I'm not aware of all the factors involved in planning these events, but I would think if you're going to schedule a Fest on Labor Day weekend (oy vey), you'd at least try to make it as painless as possible financially and convenience/travel-wise.
I've flown on Labor Day weekend many times (and flown many times since 9/11) and I don't see the big travel headaches people are talking about. For one thing, especially since 9/11, more people tend to drive. Now, I can see the driving issue but during the summer, you have beach traffic anyway. If you come into New York on Friday night, it is without fail a nightmare to drive in. During the summer, people are leaving to go to the Hamptons, the Jersey shore,etc. I should also note that city dwellers leave the city on the big holiday weekends and others come in to visit. Several fan conventions that have way many more attendees than the festival deliberately schedule their events every Labor Day weekend so obviously there are a great many people who do not find the holiday weekend a great problem. However, I would rather the festival be during the summer and not on that particular holiday weekend.
I must say that for all the discussion there has been here in the past about what happened at the World Trade Center on 9/11, there has not been a whole lot of understanding about what the DS Festival had to go through to relocate the event in the first place. Let's forget about the date issue for a moment. I would like to see how well others who complain about the location of Brooklyn would have done in the festival's shoes. All those who scheduled events in the Vista for 2003 had to go elsewhere in New York and reschedule their events. Bear in mind that hotel space in New York City generally books up a year in advance. That means there were a significant amount of other people out there looking for hotel space and facilities besides the Dark Shadows Festivals. There is only so much space in the New York City area, as vast as it might seem to be. The impression I get is that fans seem to think all the hotels in NYC area were jumping up and down saying "Pick me! Pick me!" and for some crazy reason the festival decided to pick a location that was inconvenient just to annoy and upset people.
I do agree with Connie about steering clear of the Belt Parkway on Labor Day weekend or any day during the summer months for that matter. There are other ways to get to the Brooklyn Marriott without having to take the Belt Parkway. If you come into New York City through one of the tunnels or the George Washington Bridge, you can loop around and take the Brooklyn Bridge across. You'll avoid a lot of traffic that way.
Nancy
