Gay festival nears full strength
Quarter businesses hope for sales boost
Saturday, September 01, 2007
By Jaquetta White
Southern Decadence is expected to return to pre-Katrina attendance levels this year after trying to regain its footing last year after the 2005 festival was canceled.
The annual festival, which attracts a mostly gay and lesbian crowd to the city during the Labor Day weekend, could attract more than 100,000 revelers to French Quarter restaurants, bars, clubs and hotels, about the same number in 2004.
"They said they were going to drink. They were going to eat and they were going to shop," said Rip Naquin-Delain, publisher of Ambush magazine and a promoter of the event. "And I said, 'Thank God.' "
Although the event wasn't expected to swing into high gear until Friday night, visitors by noon Friday were streaming in and out of French Quarter businesses adorned with multicolored gay-pride flags. Based on prior spending indications, Decadence, which began Wednesday and ends Sunday, could have a $100 million economic impact, Naquin-Delain said.
Last year's festival drew about 75,000 people and had a $60 million economic impact, Naquin-Delain said.
The event was smaller and more regional, in part because those who would have traveled from the West Coast stayed home fearing their travel plans might be scrapped as they were in 2005, when Decadence was canceled in the wake of Katrina.
"A lot of the people that got burned in 2005 just stayed away" (last year, said Naquin-Delain said. "But people who hadn't been here since 2004 from the West Coast are coming back this year."
Although the event falls on the heels of the two-year Katrina anniversary, Naquin-Delain said he hasn't heard much concern from potential visitors about fear of another storm. Instead, most questions have been about crime and safety.
Many French Quarter hotels are sold out for the weekend, said Bill Langkopp executive director of the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association. Citywide hotel room occupancy has hovered around the mid-50 percent range this summer.
"There has been an identifiable uptick in the Quarter area," Langkopp said. "It's a good event for the city, especially during the slow time."
Highlights of the festival include today's free outdoor concert at Bourbon and St. Ann streets, featuring Deborah Cox, Jeanie Tracy, Fredrich Ford and Mat Jordon. A parade through the French Quarter is planned for Sunday.
"It puts a lot of folks in the town to spend a lot of disposable income on a weekend that generally would be very slow," said Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau. "A lot of the activity that takes place is central to the French Quarter, and that will be big for the businesses there."
French Quarter business owners are hoping the festival provides a revenue bump at the end of a summer season that many say has been slower than the abysmal one of last year.
"We need a boost because August was slow," said Frank Tusa, who co-owns Central Grocery on Decatur Street. Tusa said he expects business to pick up during the weekend.
Lily Monk, who owns the arts and crafts shop Java House Imports, where sales this summer are about a quarter of what they were earlier in the year, said one or two sales during Decadence would be a big improvement.
"Overall August is slow. Decadence definitely helps," Monk said. "Every little bit helps."
Gay festival nears full strength
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