HAYWARD ZUCCHINI FESTIVAL   
August 16-17, 2008


click here to see 2009 review
August 16. HAYWARD, CA. Unbelievable. Welcome to Zucchini Ghostown, USA. There were AT LEAST 120 vendors missing from this dying event. Booths spread amongst the trees with huge empty spaces in between. And here I am, crammed up into a 12x12 space along the sidewalk with 3 other vendors. In my 17 years of doing events, I have never seen such a decline in the number of vendors. Wow.... where did everybody go?

Last year was pretty bad and that's why they are MIA. There's probably 30 vendors in back of our booth (spread around) and it seems like one-half of them are new. Out in the field, we have huge open spaces. Something is terribly wrong.

The entertainment was so-so again. I had the second worst Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich of my life. Don't ever get a Philly cheese from a Greek food booth. Awful. From another food vendors I got a combo of mushrooms, zucchini and I don't know what the hell the other thing was. Not very good also.

This show has pretty much hit rock bottom and one of the few ways to survive is to offer booths to vendors for $150 next year...instead of $350. Crowds were down considerably and things didn't pick up until 2-3:00PM. Poor sales; bad attitudes. There is a handful of vendors who are showing some kind of profit at this event, but that is the The weather was absolutely marvelous and the winds never kicked up in the afternoon. And of course, how would you like to be a vendor at an event that forces you to load your stuff in the dark (no #$#(@# lights around) and swerve your way around trees, people, vehicles. etc. This thing ends at 7:30PM on Sunday and gets dark shortly after that.

And of course, the Zucchini Bread was terrific, as always. I always pick up a couple loaves on the Saturday of the event and they are always devoured by my family by Sunday afternoon. Delicious. Well done.

Sunday, August 17. Weather was okay...a bit cloudy in the AM. Decent late-morning crowd and we had a much larger turnout than on Saturday. Better sales for us today, but not necessarily for other vendors. A number of vendors did very poorly. Person selling silver jewelry next to me had many items stolen. This show still attracts a lot of riff-raff. Music wasn't very good. I had another Philly Cheese Steak from another food vendor and that was bad too. Somehow, I get the feeling that I had leftovers from Saturday. Meat rather dry and chunky. Had some decent Garlic Fries and a good combo basket with mushrooms, zucchini and cheese.

Vendors had to wait until 7:30 to bring their vehicles in to load up and that, my readers, totally sucks. Not being fair to the vendors. The let the music play until 7:30 PM and SOME YEARS it goes longer than that. Come on now.... it's dangerous for us to load up when it gets dark because THERE ARE NO LIGHTS AND DIFFICULT TO SEE. I guess they are waiting for somebody to get run over? Hellooooooooo. Absolutely no reason in the world to extend the show beyond 6:00, which is two hours after a lot of other shows end. Also, there were no Festival Programs handed out this year.

Expect more new vendors next year. Poor management led to so many booths missing this year.

 

 

By Gideon Rubin The Daily Review
Article Last Updated: 08/17/2008 10:07:35 PM PDT

HAYWARD — The high price of gas — though it has been dropping recently — may be responsible for bringing a larger crowd to the annual Zucchini Festival this year.  An estimated 22,000 to 23,000 people filled Kennedy Park this weekend for the festival — or about 3,000 more than last year, according to organizer Richard Essi.  Essi attributed the increase to increasing numbers of people taking "staycations" as a factor in the surprising attendance surge. "That might have brought up the attendance because they're not going out of town," Essi said.

The impact of skyrocketing fuel costs wasn't all good, though, Essi said, noting the festival lost about 30 vendors who couldn't afford to attend the event because of higher costs.  Other factors contributing to the squash carnival's better-than-expected showing included a new "Kids Town" amusement park that featured a Ferris wheel and other rides, as well as lower ticket prices, he said.

General admission ticket prices were lowered from $5 to $4.  Tickets for seniors, children and the handicapped were lowered from $2 to $1.  The festival featured legendary Bay Area blues vocalist Curtis Lawson, who performed Sunday night. The festival, which started in 1982, benefits local charities, Essi said. "It has a long tradition in Hayward, and in talking to people, there seems to be a lot of support for it," Hayward Mayor Michael said.