Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Events topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council keeps Spooktacular as two-day event, asks staff to track residency and pursue sponsors
Summary
After staff presented attendance and cost-recovery data, council voted to continue the Spooktacular festival as a two-day event (Thursday and Friday), asked staff to track ticket purchaser residency data, pursue sponsorships to offset an estimated $8k–$15k budget delta, and to preserve an adaptive quieter hour for families.
City staff recommended keeping Spooktacular as a two-day community event, presenting attendance estimates (example: prior year Thursday ~5,400; Friday ~3,800; two-day total ~9,200), sponsorship increases and cost-recovery data (cost recovery improved from 15% to 30%). Staff estimated per-person costs of roughly $5.30 for a two-day schedule vs. about $8.83 if reduced to a single day; the council discussed trade-offs between cost and resident access.
Councilmembers stressed the importance of resident access (Thursday sold out to residents), the value of an adaptive quieter hour for children with sensory needs, and the potential to increase sponsor revenue to cover the difference if the event remains two days. The council voted to continue Spooktacular as a two-day event and directed staff to track residency of ticket purchasers and pursue additional sponsorships; several members proposed re-evaluating the format next year based on sponsorship revenue.
