Fiesta vendors enjoying dry, busy events

Posted at: 10/09/2009 5:15 PM | Updated at: 10/09/2009 5:41 PM
By: Eric Kahnert, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Friday was another beautiful day for Balloon Fiesta-goers, and it's not just the spectators enjoying it. The nice weather is really helping the bottom line for a lot of vendors.

Last year's fiesta was nearly a wash-out, but this year, the weather has been better.

That means more people have been showing up to events, increasing revenues.

The chicken is grilling and the vendors are making sales.

Thanks to the mostly-blue skies and dry days during this year's fiesta, vendors say sales are looking good.

Vendor Daniel Garcia said Friday, "The weather has been nice— it's been a real factor in people coming out. Like today, it was so nice— we had a lot of lines, every register, about 50 people at every register making a lot of money."

Food and souvenir vendors say the weather can make it or break it for them.

"It's huge when you're working outside like this, when you have any days where people can't come it affects your whole livelihood, so yeah the weather is huge," Bookbutton vendor Glen Smith said.

Last year, more than half of the Balloon Fiesta events were canceled.

Jami Gallegos with Road Runner Concessions said, "Last year was our worst year on record."

Vendors say that weather and big crowds play a major factor as vendor fees are already set.

Smith said, "When you pay the amount of money you do to rent these booths, if you can't get the income because of the weather, or something going on and people not showing up, it can be devastated."

A fiesta spokeswoman says she won't have attendance numbers until the event is over, but she says park-and-ride sales are definitely up from last year.

Only a few events have been canceled this year, and vendors hope this weekend once again proves to be dry— and profitable.

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