Balloonapalooza a business booster for downtown core (Updated)

This weekend’s downtown balloon festival may have the busiest road in the city’s core closed down, but festival patrons and businesses alike seem to prefer it that way.

Ouellette Avenue from Wyandotte Street to Riverside Drive is open to foot traffic only for this weekend’s third annual Balloonapalooza, turning it into a pedestrian paradise that has tens of thousands flocking to the city centre.

“People like the walkability. They enjoy the ability to be able to cross the street and not to have to worry or be concerned, particularly when they’re with young kids, like in this particular festival,” said Debi Croucher, director of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, which hosts the event each year.

Downtown Windsor has been taken over by oversized characters. The Balloonapalooza festival was in full swing Saturday, August 17, 2013. Jessica Law and her son TJ Law, 6, are dwarfed by a massive Elmo. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

The festival speaks to the rejuvenation the DWBIA hopes for downtown Windsor, said Croucher.

“It’s very positive, it’s family-friendly and it’s bringing people down into the city centre that perhaps would never come to downtown Windsor,” said Croucher. “This is the kind of vibe and atmosphere we want downtown.”

And downtown businesses couldn’t be happier, said Croucher. Patios pulled out right out onto the street transform typical bars and pubs, waterholes that mostly only drinkers frequent, into spaces for families to gather and relax.

“I can tell you that our businesses would like Ouellette closed more often. Many of them will attest to the fact that this is really good for their businesses. They make a lot of money this weekend given the tremendous foot traffic,” said Croucher. “I think one of the biggest selling features is it’s a free festival, so folks who might have paid a gated entrance at other festivals, here, instead of spending that money to access the festival will spend that money at retail establishments or variety stores or having a bite to eat – and they don’t mind as much because they’re not dropping $20 or $30 getting in the doors.”

Croucher said Saturday numbers for this year’s Balloonapalooza have already exceeded previous years.

“Last year we had an estimated attendance of 35,000. We’re expecting to top that this year,” said Croucher.

Cathy Nepszy attended Balloonapalooza for the first time Saturday along with her kids, niece, nephew and parents.

“It’s amazing to see all these families and people of all ages feel safe to come down here and getting out and exploring out here downtown,” said Nepszy. “I think for families, downtown is a bit less approachable unless it’s for an event or it’s closed.”

Nepszy’s kids, Mateo, 9, Maija, 5, and Sophia, 4, were having fun posing inside the mouse of a large Angry Bird balloon.

“They love it,” said Nepszy. “Every time we turn a corner, there’s something new to see.”

Croucher said this year’s Balloonapalooza featured over 80 cold air balloons and inflatables. She said this is the only event of its kind across North America.

This was the second year Eleni Bastounis attended with her sons, Alexi, 8, and Maximus, 5.

“It’s nice that you can actually walk the streets and it’s pedestrian friendly,” said Bastounis. “It’s summertime and summer’s really short, so the more you can enjoy it outdoors, the better.”

Barb Zatars, of Waterloo, checked out the stretch of blown-up characters with her husband, John, daughter Jill, 15, and sister Ruth Ann Wilhelm.

“In Waterloo, we have no-car Sundays on our main street sometimes and it’s really cool. People love it,” said Zatars. “It’s not every Sunday in the summer, just some, but it’s really fun and people really like it…They should do this more here. It’s awesome.”

Elinor Price, owner of Vermouth, is used to selling drink specials – featuring vermouth – but Saturday her business was barbecuing hot dogs.

“Usually we don’t serve hot dogs, but this is a great opportunity to open earlier and serve more people,” Price said about Balloonapalooza.

She said she used to live in California where a main street in the city’s core, like Ouellette Avenue, would always be closed and only open to foot traffic.

“It’s not necessary for cars to be driving down here anyways,” said Price. “There’s no parking on this street anyways. It should just be people walking.”

The late night crowd enjoys the open “walkability” as well. University of Windsor student Maciah Telfer hits up the downtown bar scene almost every weekend and likes bar-hopping down the street without worrying about cars. She and her friends said they would like to see the DWBIA do this more often.

Telfer said closing down Ouellette Avenue is good for safety reasons during the late-night hours.

“Drunk people are stumbling all over the place and you don’t want to see them getting hit by cars,” she said.

Jay Marchand, general manager of Honest Lawyer, said he welcomes all the families into the downtown, which transforms the bar he manages into a more family-friendly environment for all ages to enjoy.

“We have interactive games in here, so this is good to draw kids to come in and play air hockey and have a burger,” said Marchand. “If you shut down Ouellette every weekend, I don’t know what the negative side would be. Everybody makes money, everyone is happy, the community gets together and it’s great for Windsor. Everybody loves it and the businesses are thriving – they should just do this every weekend.”

Larry Horwitz, DWBIA chair, said for some businesses downtown, this is their best weekend of sales all year thanks to Balloonapalooza drawing in customers.

“It’s kind of like their Christmas of the year,” said Horwitz.

The annual balloon festival converts the city’s core into exactly what the DWBIA likes to see, said Horwitz.

“We very much welcome the people that come late at night, but we also want to change that into families and a mixed family, and so this does that,” said Horwitz.

But closing main downtown streets for events such as Balloonapalooza is costly, said Horwitz, mainly because of the amount of security required. The annual event costs the DWBIA over $20,000 on security alone.

So while Horwitz said he’d like to shut down the city’s core more often to open it up to pedestrians, he said because of high security costs, it just isn’t economically feasible.

“What we need to do is purchase bollards – they block the streets – and implement a bollard system,” said Horwitz.

Horwitz said he plans to call a meeting sometime after this weekend’s event to discuss a plan and form a proposal to close Ouellette on a more permanent basis in the summer months.

“If there’s a desire – and we’re going to ask everybody – to have this on a more permanent basis next summer, we’d be very happy to implement a that program and look at spending money on bollards,” said Horwitz. “That would cut most of the costs for street closures downtown, so then you could have this on a weekend basis.”

(With files from Joel Boyce)

Downtown Windsor has been taken over by oversized characters. The Balloonapalooza festival was in full swing Saturday, August 17, 2013. Here people check out the event on Ouellette Avenue. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

Downtown Windsor has been taken over by oversized characters. The Balloonapalooza festival was in full swing Saturday, August 17, 2013. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

Downtown Windsor has been taken over by oversized characters. The Balloonapalooza festival was in full swing Saturday, August 17, 2013. Here people enjoy a train ride on Ouellette Avenue. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)