In the promoting and hyping of the film festival, one of the sales pitches from the organizers was the economic impact the event would have on businesses downtown. On opening night, I thought it would be interesting to visit the businesses that line White, Ives, and Main Street and see first-hand the so-called economic impact that went largely ignored by the media.

This video presentation was originally posted on Friday May 23rd.

Will the 75,000 dollar investment be worth it?

Will there really be over 5,000 people attending the films?

Will the festival bring in the projected revenue for the area as promised?

Since word that the Common Council was prepared to fork over 75,000 to the organizers of the Connecticut Film Festival, I thought it would be important to keep a CLOSE eye on the success of the event.

You see, I have a problem what the media in our area. If you look at the list of organizations sponsoring the festival, you'll notice such media outlets as The News-Times, Fairfield County Weekly, and Tribuna. Now, with that being the case, it's logical to assume that they won't do much in terms of monitoring the success of the festival when it comes to holding the organizers accountable for the promises they gave to the city (i.e., revenue the festival would bring into the city, numbers of people attending the event, etc).

FOR INSTANCE, watch this report on the festival from FOX-61.



Okay, with that in mind and remembering that the city was told that this event would people in aprox. 5,000 over the course of the entire event, which would result in people eating, drinking, and partying downtown (a.k.a. spend money in downtown businesses), take a look at MY footage from opening night. Make sure to check the footage of all the restaurants on Ives, White, and Main Street.

NOTE: The footage of downtown businesses was shot at various times from 8 pm until 11:30 pm.



Get the point (and to note: a good portion of people who were at the Palace that night were affiliated with City Hall, or the event in some capacity). It's almost like the two videos were shot in different cities. Mind you, this was opening night...a night that would probably attract the largest number of people to a screening.

Again, was the 75,000 dollars the city put into this festival a good investment? We'll soon find out as I'm just getting started.

DEVELOPING