Whether it’s good or bad, change is guaranteed to be
different.
San Juan Bautista – Whether it’s good or bad, change is guaranteed to be different.
Organizers of the San Juan Bautista 27th Annual Arts to Wine Festival are hoping changing the date of the festival to the same weekend of the Taste of Morgan Hill festival won’t take business away from either event, but will keep locals in the area to experience both.
For the past 26 years, the San Juan Bautista festival was held the second weekend of September, but last year the chamber of commerce board of directors and past executive director changed it to the last weekend of the month, said current executive director Halina Kleinsmith.
“When the decision was made, somebody didn’t have the community calendar in front of them,” she said.
Because of the change, the chamber has been having some problems securing the same amount of arts and crafts vendors that have come to the show in years past, Kleinsmith said.
So far about 100 vendors have signed up, and the chamber is hoping to have about 160, she said.
To help alleviate the problem, Kleinsmith has been working with Sunday Minnich, the executive director of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce, to promote each other’s shows and get people to go to both instead of just one or the other, she said.
“What was looking like an ‘Oh my goodness’ has turned into a real asset,” Kleinsmith said. “It’s worth going to both because we have different offerings – both are wonderful shows for the scale of each city.”
The Taste of Morgan Hill show already is completely booked with 200 vendors, and Minnich has referred several arts and crafts vendors that missed the deadline to San Juan Bautista, she said.
She has also put brochures for the San Juan Bautista festival in her office and sent brochures for the Morgan Hill festival to the San Juan Bautista chamber, she said.
Morgan Hill has been having its festival during the last weekend of September for the past 15 years, she said.
“I can sympathize with Halina,” Minnich said. “If we can work together that would be great – people can go to one one day and another the next. It doesn’t hurt to try to help each other out.”
San Juan Bautista’s deadline for vendors is Sept. 23, and Kleinsmith said if people show up last minute they’ll still accommodate them.
If they don’t have the 160 vendors that they’ve had in year’s past, the show will still go on, she said.
“We’ll still have a really good quality show on a smaller size,” Kleinsmith said.
