The food/drink options last weekend at the 2009 Main St. Arts Festival were both spend-y and, like most of the art, short on locally produced fare (even though, yes, the festival set aside an “emerging artist” category for the locals). The majority of vendors pushed prepackaged food — like Lemon Chills and popcorn — from carts. There were supposed to be some Texas wines this year, but I never found them. Sadly, all I saw were booths with beer and faux, wine-based margaritas like the kind you get at Rangers’ games.
Most days, walking around downtown with an open container of hooch can land you a ticket for public intoxication or worse. But during Main St., the opposite is true, provided you’ve purchased your alcoholic beverage with festival coupons.
And, really, the Monopoly money curtails drinking. You just can’t afford to spend eight coupons (about four bucks) on a can of Mike’s Hard Lemonade or 15 coupons for a tequila-free margarita. My friend got one, though, and said it tasted like the real thing.
“You know,” I said, feeling smart-alecky, “for the same amount of money — 10 bucks — you could’ve gotten, like, three real margaritas at Bobby V’s? Or one really fancy one at Eddie V’s?” She nearly dropped her drink. It’s the Monopoly money! You forget what things actually cost when you’re paying with coupons!
However, Coors Light was a steal at seven coupons (about five bucks) apiece. So, basically, drinking beer at Main St. is about as expensive as drinking beer at the annual stock show and rodeo.
On the plus side: Reata Restaurant‘s tenderloin tamales went for a mere 14 coupons per. Of course, for a couple bucks more, I could have simply walked one block over and had the same tamales with a real tequila margarita on Reata’s peaceful rooftop patio, far above the traffic, noise, and — ewww! — dog poop on Main St. below. But scarfing down grub standing hunched over a rented cocktail table in a blustery Fort Worth spring wind is part of the fun of Main St., right? Right?!
The festival indeed is a monster. It engulfed every inch of asphalt from the Fort Worth Convention Center to the Tarrant County Courthouse, and some streets were inaccessible as early as Monday, though the festival didn’t start until Thursday. The event, according to the organizers, Downtown Fort Worth Initiatives Inc., is “the Southwest’s largest, four-day visual arts and entertainment festival” and, according to Harris List, a collection of 110 arts-and-crafts shows, the ninth-largest such fest in the country.
I ought to be more grateful. Between the Main St. Arts Festival and the Christmastime festivities, both produced by DFWI, the city gets an estimated $19 million in tourist revenue. More importantly, in this wheezy economic climate, Main St. brings about 400,000 people downtown. Sure, they’re fighting their way through traffic and then fighting their way through people to look at art and crafts in the booths each year, but they’re downtown and they’re spending money. A lot of money. Thanks, Main St. Arts Festival! (I think.)
— Laurie Barker James
Contact Last Call at lastcall@fwweekly.com.
