Changes to the Arts Hill Festival

Wychwood Music Festival

Yesterday, I attended the monthly council meeting after learning that the future of the Arts Hill Festival would be discussed as well as a couple other development opportunities. Elena and the Norristown Diary does a great job at dissecting council agendas and informing residents. You can read her post about the council meeting by clicking here.

I took notes for the portion that talked about transient food vendors (food trucks) and relocation of the Arts Hill Festival.

I would like to first state that no representative from the Arts Hill council was present to confirm these changes. The Times Herald posted this morning about Montco Idol finalist performing May 2nd at the Arts Hill Festival at the bandshell. However, the ordinance was brought to the agenda because the county wants food trucks for their workers more often and Arts Hill wanted trucks to be able to park along Harding Blvd. Instead of making exceptions to the current ordinance, they put in a motion to change the ordinance to ease the restrictions. It was unanimously passed. The biggest debate came when discussing free parking around the courthouse for food truck days. After much discussion, only food trucks will have a parking waiver.

For the county food truck days, they plan to hold them bi-weekly coordinating with the county's payday. The trucks would be stationed from Swede near 1 Montgomery Plaza to Main and on the county sidewalks. Norristown Business Association stated that "nearby businesses embrace this idea and are in the process of filling out applications to join these events." The new ordinance will allow for those businesses to set up tables and serve food outdoors of their businesses or near the courthouse.

The county will select 1-2 vendors per event. This number includes Norristown restaurants. A representative from the county stated that "there would be no preference selection to Norristown restaurants, however, we will include them in the process." The county has 1,400 employees and hundreds of daily visitors so I am assuming 1-2 trucks will quickly increase and it will be easier for Norristown businesses to win these permits.

Now on to the Arts Hill Festival which is suppose to happen in the 1st weekend in May. The only date confirmation I have seen this year is from the Montco Idol contest page. I will only speak on what I heard last night at the meeting. 

They said that the Arts Hill would be moved off the Arts Hill and to Elmwood Park. The festival would also change from an "arts" festival to music festival. The reason for the food truck changes are to accommodate the new festival and the vendors that would attend. I also heard rumors of making it more of an adult themed event by serving alcohol. once again, nothing is confirmed.

I have no doubt that the Arts Hill Festival will be successful at any location, but what are your thoughts? Do you think changing the Arts Hill festival to a music festival is a good idea?