Musikfest attendance likely up despite crime, organizers say

Despite several violent crimes around Bethlehem during the 10-day Musikfest 2014, organizers reported a slight uptick in attendance and food and craft vendors might have seen their most successful event since inception.

Police took into custody Julius Jose Cortijo, 17, of Allentown, about noon Sunday; he is accused of firing shots into a crowd on Aug. 5 at West Garrison and Masslich streets.

Another shooting took place Aug. 1 at West Raspberry and Main Street, a block from Musikfest and only about 20 minutes before festivities wrapped up for the night. And then there was a brass knuckle assault, several robberies and other shots fired in separate incidents near festival grounds.

"When you look at the festival and festival attendance overall, we really didn't notice much of an impact if at all," said Mark Demko, ArtsQuest spokesman, about the violence. "In fact, by all indications, attendance at the festival appears to be up this year."

Demko credited support from the city, police department and other law enforcement officials patrolling the grounds for patron safety and assistance with crowd control.

"When you consider that we have up to one million people who come to Musikfest each year, the fact that there's only a handful of incidents over the 10 days of the event really speaks volumes about our great community and about the thousands upon thousands of people who attend Musikfest," Demko said.

The festival has set a standard of attracting more than 1 million visitors annually, but concrete figures for 2014 likely won't be available until the end of the week, Demko said. He said solid crowds turned out throughout the festival grounds on several nights with audiences filling the stages for performances by many of the artists.

At the Sands Steel Stage main stage, there were nearly 47,000 guests, including 6,500-plus patrons for the sold-out Keith Urban show this evening. That's up from the 41,000 total attendance at the Sands Steel Stage in 2013, according to Demko.

He predicted revenue likely also has increased slightly over 2013, but said the late Aug. 1 Sands Steel Stage concert cancellation by ZZ Top will have an impact on the final tally. Organizers still await information on some of the food and beverage sales as well as credit card transactions, which account for an increasingly higher percentage of patrons purchases, Demko said.

He noted that this year's weather -- near picture perfect -- drew packed crowds. In 2011, the festival had flooding during the closing weekend.

The combination of weather coupled with the diverse performance lineup and special attractions such as Saurus, the "Mini Takes the States" road rally and the Polynesian Dancer group on the first weekend really seemed to attract people from all over, Demko said.

"I personally talked to people this year from California, Washington state, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey," he noted.

Climbing food sales

This year's sunny conditions had cash registers ringing the most some food vendors had seen in decades.

Leo Osanitsch, proprieter with Karl Ehmer Sausages, described food vendor sales as being like a horse race, neck and neck with the sales of 2013. He said by Wednesday, he estimated every vendor recouped what he or she might have lost due to poor weather on the Fest's opening day. Last year, it rained Thursday and Friday, he said.

"If there's rain, once you lose it, you can't make it up," Osanitsch said, estimating a 20 percent increase in revenue over last year. "After that (opening day), it was like an escalator. It just went up and up and up."

Osanitsch also credited Festplatz with being an ideal location to set up shop, calling it a "thoroughfare" as patrons hop from different activities. The move from Volksplatz to Festplatz also proved successful for Take A Taco owner George S. Pitsilos, who also had another location on Main Street.

"This was our best year ever," Pitsilos said. "It was great weather, great crowds."

At Bethlehem Dairy Store, employees estimated selling out of 100 apple dumplings and 75 "chipwiches" daily.

"I don't remember a Musikfest day where it was this nice every day," said Tyler Langkamer, employee at Bethlehem Dairy Store.

Sales also had been better this year for the light-up souvenir beer mugs. Sales totaled an estimated $60,000 compared with $50,000 last year.

Regular mugs pulled in about $200,000, said Rebecca Hannon, retail operations manager for ArtsQuest.

The 5,136 light-up mugs completely sold out by 4 p.m. Saturday, and 1,000 more were ordered this year over 2013. Less than 1,000 regular mugs were left by early evening out of 24,672 ordered, Hannon said. She plans to order more light-up mugs for 2015, she said.

Vendor dismayed by wrongdoing

Artisans showing off their wares at Handwerkplatz also reported good sales.

"The weather has been with us," said Hedge Sefcovic, owner of A Natural Alternative, who has sold soaps and other items for 12 years at the festival. "It's been great."

Despite Barb Talijan, owner of "The Ornamental Lady," pulling in a 10 to 15 percent profit over last year, she claimed a $30 pair of earrings was shoplifted.

"It's such a wonderful festival," she said. "For people to come here with the intent to do bad stuff is disgusting."

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