By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Say goodbye to most of that orange snow fencing in the Black Swamp Arts Festival’s Main Stage area.
Bowling Green City Council approved extending the festival’s liquor permit to include the entirety of Lot 2 – the parking lot behind Flower Basket, Beckett’s, Juniper, and Waddington’s Jewelers.
That entire area will be now considered part of the festival’s beer garden. So festivalgoers will be able to carry their beer or wine with them when they fetch their food from the food trucks on the west side of the lot.
Amy Craft Ahrens, long-time concessions chair for the festival, said during a public hearing Monday that this will allow the attendees to spread out more and alleviate crowding in beer garden on the south end of the area.
While “not a beer festival,” sales of beer account for 35 percent of the festival’s revenue, she said. “It is crucial to what we do at the festival. It may increase revenue a little bit.”
Craft Ahrens recalled that when the festival began in 1993, beer could only be sold in a small strip of property owned by Floyd Craft, her father and one of the festival’s founders.
With the city’s approval, the area in which beer can be served has expanded a couple times, and now includes the seating area extending from the stage to the beer serving stations. This would enlarge it to the entire area.
The move has been under consideration by the festival committee for a while, she said.
“We’ve shown ourselves to be a conscientious partner,” Craft Ahrens said. “I can’t think of any incident that involved police” in a dispute over where a patron could or could not have beer.
“We do feel we can make this work, make it successful for the festival and for the city and maintain our history of non-issues,” she said.
Council member Bill Herald thanked her for presenting council with its easiest decision of the night.
At the council meeting that followed the hearing, council unanimously approved the F permit.
Council Member Jeff Dennis did question why the festival had to go through this process.
The city administrator can grant liquor permits in city parks, but not on other city property. That’s up to council and requires a public hearing, said Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter. Having the hearing, she added, seems appropriate. The process has only been used two or three times in the last 20 years.
