For years now we’ve been telling you about the strain being “Wisconsin’s Event City” has been putting on the city of Oshkosh. Huge amounts of overtime for police and fire personnel, the inability to take vacations for city employees, wear and tear on equipment, and general fatigue on those of us who live here and who have to put up with extra traffic on the streets, in stores and at restaurants. It’s why we have the controversial Special Event Permit Fee and why the City had to hire someone exclusively to co-ordinate city services for events.
But it looks like the market itself is going to start providing some relief. Starting next year, Country USA will drop two days of its festival and feature only three nights of music. That means two fewer days of backup along Interstate 41 as trucks and campers try to get onto the grounds. That means two fewer days of needing 20-cops to direct traffic at the South Park interchanges. It also means two fewer days of muddy pickup trucks filling up the fast-food drive-thrus.
The reduction of Country USA comes after the same promoters cut back on the length of Rock USA at the same site a couple of years ago. While those who attend those events like to think that they are hard-core partiers–five days is a really long time to be drunk all of the time. And the promoters recognize that it’s hard to keep staff productive for that long and to control costs. The folks at Waterfest realized that you don’t need to have a concert every Thursday night to be successful. And it has allowed them greater flexibility in booking better musical acts the past few years.
I hope that some other events here in Oshkosh look at Country and Rock USA–along with Waterfest and scale back their runs too. Especially Sawdust Days–who continue to believe that we need a five day 4th of July celebration–when the 4th itself is really all that people care about. Maybe the folks at EAA could consider tightening up their schedule–as the final Sunday often feels like the last few miles of a death march–with little excitement and relatively few attendees. Remember, the Fly-In used to NINE DAYS over TWO WEEKENDS and I think that everyone involved would admit it’s a much better event without those extra two days. A Wednesday to Saturday action-packed run would seem to me to be a better fit now.
If current trends hold, Oshkosh will still be “Wisconsin’s Event City”–but it will also be the “Smaller Event City”. And that means the men and women of our police and fire departments can take summer vacations again–and the Farmers Market won’t have to buy their own barricades to stay in business.
