Organizers of two Monkland summer street festivals are cancelling their events after receiving repeated complaints.
The festivals usually take place over Grand Prix weekend in June and at the end of August.
Organizers say 400,000 people visit the neighbourhood during the two events, but some residents have complained over the years about noise and garbage.
A handful of merchants have spoken out, saing their businesses don’t benefit and they actually lose money.
“This makes no sense for us to continue with all the negativity going on,” said Danny Roseman, president of the Monkland Merchants Association and Monkland Village Productions, which organizes the festivals.
Roseman said he spent upwards of $150,000 a year to stage each event.
Three per cent of his funding came from the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
He claims he makes very little money and it’s a lot of work to put them on.
Roseman says he’s grown tired of all the complaints and that was the main reason he’s cancelling the festivals this year.
“Unfortunately, it’s only a few days. I don’t know why they complained. They say there were riff-raff coming in,” he said.
“There were more strollers on this weekend. We could have called it stroller fest. This was a family event. Of course I’m disappointed.”
The festivals have caused a bitter divide in the community.
Peggy Regan, who runs Gryphon Bakery, says there was too much drinking and it wasn’t inclusive or reflective of the community of NDG.
She claims her business drops 40 per cent on festival weekends.
“People can’t get to you. There are crowds, there are distractions, the focus is elsewhere,” said Regan.
“Also, our residents aren’t out shopping very much on festival days. There is no parking, it’s hard to get around, it’s crowded, it’s dirty.”
Regan is part of a new NDG Business Association that is open to organizing another festival in the years to come that is less disruptive, she says.
Other businesses, like Sparkles Candy Store, say the festivals benefit their bottom line.
“It’s really unfortunate because we really, as merchants, loved it,” said Claire Himo.
“We loved participating in it. It was a lot of hard work but it was really fruitful for all of us.”
Paul Brodeur at the Austrian Ski shop is disappointed and says without the festival, he’ll have to re-assess the stock he’ll purchase for the summer.
“For me, you know it’s a significant loss. It’s probably 60 per cent of my summer business in two weekends,” he said.
The borough argues about $10,000 in funding is available, if a non-profit organization wants to stage another festival.
“A group would have to get off the ground quickly,” said borough mayor Russell Copeman.
“Submit plans, perhaps they would be more modest in previous years, but I am prepared to look at a request. Money is available.”
He said the borough gave about $10,000 to the non-profit Monkland Merchants Association, which then hired a for-profit sub-contractor to stage the festival.
Roseman said city funding was not an issue in his decision not to hold the festival this year, since it only comprised three per cent of his budget.
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