North Adams Business Hoping Solid Profits From Solid Sound
 Local venues are hoping to capture not just tourist dollars but to revitalize the city to recruit more retail and small industry. |
"Most of these take place in a field — we are within walking distance of a downtown, which is rare for a festival this size," said Mass MoCA Director Joseph C. Thompson, noting the eclectic mix of mostly unknown bands will provide opportunities for concertgoers to wander the couple blocks to Main Street. "I don't think every single band will engage everyone's attention all of the time."
The Wilco-headed festival on Aug. 13-15 is just one of a number of events the city's new Develop North Adams group is hoping to take advantage of as it also spurs ideas of its own. Some 30 business, cultural and city officials came together at Petrino's Cafe on Wednesday afternoon to strategize and prioritize not just the fest but what they will need to go forward to encourage tourism and development.
A big part of that is creating links between now-annual events like Downstreet Art (opening next week through the summer) and singular happenings like the Northern Berkshire Food Festival, occurring on June 27. A major factor is communication between the city and downtown entities, and between the entities themselves, to ensure everyone's fully informed.
"As a business community, we need to get together and discuss what we want, what direction we want to go in as a community," said Brian Miksic, director of Develop North Adams. Those attending later discussed marketing, branding and possible collaborations, along with subcommittees to handle different aspects such as recruiting.
"Cheap, quick, visible" has been Mayor Richard Alcombright's mantra since he stepped into office in January, and he repeated it on Wednesday.
"This is not the first step but a next step in what we want to be," said Alcombright. "We needed to be 'global' and not just about downtown."
That means thinking beyond just Main Street, although Main Street is on everyone's minds as the summer season begins.
It's about, said Jonathan Secor, director of Berkshire Cultural Resource Center and coordinator for Downstreet Art, "bringing people with dollars to downtown North Adams."
"We are working with Scarafoni [Associates] to set up galleries in every one of the open storefronts," said Secor. "We can really try to brand North Adams as a visual arts destination."
Since the majority of people come to specific events, Downstreet Art, now in its third year, created "Downstreet Art Thursdays" to draw crowds. The summerlong event will include a massive installation by the Williams College Museum of Art in the former Gateway Motors and a reinvention of "The Artery Lounge" on Holden Street along with more than 30 other galleries.
Local retailers and restaurants can tap into that, said Secor, by considering later hours or specials on Thursdays.
That might be cheap, quick and visible, but dipping into the wallets of the thousands of concertgoers heading into Mass MoCA may take more planning and coordination with the museum.
Ticketing is being done electronically and holders are being kept up to date the same ways, Thompson said. "We know who they are, where they live and we give them very broad information on what they can do, where they can park."
He expects two waves: about 2,000 will arrive for Friday night's opening, with balance coming into the city on Saturday morning. Wilco will perform Saturday night and conclude by 11 p.m. That opens several opportunities for retail shops and restaurants to tap into the festival by opening early and staying open late.
Thompson said the museum is "all ears" on how it can help promote local businesses on its website as well as ways to steer those concertgoers to local venues during and after the music ends.
"This can be simply taking the initiative to extend our hours," said Lois Daunis, owner of Papyri Books and DNA board member. "Just be open, open, open. If there's a common sense that if [concertgoers] go downtown, there will be places open all weekend."
