It’s That Time of Year Again!

The 2011 Wistaria Festival is scheduled for Sunday, March 20, from 9am to 5pm.  Well, sort of.  Vine viewing ends at 4, and music in the park will end at 6 (for more on that, see below).  Downtown shops and restaurants will be open.  We have dozens of artists, crafters and food vendors lining Baldwin Ave., Sierra Madre Blvd. and Memorial Park.  There will be kids’ attractions in the park, too.  There will be a special Wistaria Festival postal cancellation available in Kersting Court (and after the festival, for a few weeks, at the Post Office).

The vine will (hopefully) be in full bloom.  Weather patterns seem to be indicating this will be a good year.  We’ve switched this year from the big motorcoach buses transporting up the hill to old-time trolleys that seat 40% fewer people.

As always, we have lots of entertainment:

Partial List of Entertainment for the 2011 Wistaria Festival

If the band name is underlined, it’s a link to a web page/file where you can learn more about (and in some cases, listen to) the band.

Vine Stage

Ron Longo 9 – 11am

Michael Zubia 11am – 1pm

Ron Longo 1 – 3pm

Dick Bertrand 3 – 5pm

Kersting Court Stage

Banna Beag Mall 9:30 – 10:30am

Bruce and Pamela Forman  11am – 12:30pm

Michael Zubia 1:15 – 2:30pm

Len Mendoza  3 – 4:30pm

 

Jailhouse Inn Stage

Tremoloco 11am – 12:15pm

Chico’s Bail Bonds 12:30 – 1:30pm

Homegrown  1:45 – 2:45pm

? And the Wistarians  3 – 5pm

Charcuterie Stage

Gem City Jazz Cats 11am – 12:15pm

Ocho X 12:45 – 2pm

Dave Shelton 2:30 – 4:30pm

Memorial Park Stage

Emcee: SierraMadreSue Behrens

Horses on Astroturf 12noon – 1:15pm

Snotty Scotty and the Hankies 1:45 – 2:45pm

Aluminum Marshmallow 3 – 4:15pm

All-star Jam in the park, 4:45 to 6

Additional between act entertainment provided by students from Alverno High School

Acts, Times and Stages subject to change without notice.

Special thanks to Tim Tutwiler, Entertainment Chair

 

Savings Available for Chamber Members on Shuttle Tickets

As always, you can view the vine for no charge.  However, if you’d like to ride in the old time trolley up the hill to the vine (and back), shuttle tickets this year are $10/pre-sale, and $12 day of the event.  This year, for the first time, we’ve instituted discounted senior and kid pricing, with adults 62 and up and kids 6 to 16 paying just $7 (kids 5 and under ride free).  But there’s good news for the rest of you, too!  Those in the know (and that’s you, since you’re reading this newsletter), can save $2/ticket on the non-discounted tickets by entering the promo code SMCha02 when ordering your tickets at www.WistariaTickets.com. Oh, and we’re not going to be sticklers.  If you want to help your best customers save a little money on shuttle tickets, feel free to give them that promot code.

Volunteers are Needed

An event of this size and scope would not be possible without the contributions of dozens of folks volunteering their time.  We thank each and every one of you, and we wonder: are there more of you out there?  We still need to fill some shifts.

There are still a couple open shifts for docents at the vine.  We need some volunteers to staff Chamber booths: the ticket booth, the information booth and the merchandise booth.  And those of you that are early risers, or who can’t volunteer later in the day because you’ll be minding the store, we have opportunities for you to pitch in, as well.  We need people to help with set-up, too.

Six Barricade/Traffic Volunteers Needed to Assist PD

The city has recently changed its policy to allow folks other than the SMPD to man the barricades, saving organizations $100/hr. per person at their events.  THANK YOU CITY!  However, there is a certification process for those who would like to help with this job, at Wistaria or other events throughout the year.  If you’re interested in becoming one of the traffic volunteers, please click here for all the info.  According to Community Services Director Elisa Weaver “We need to have at least six volunteers for Wistaria Festival, and PD needs at least 10 days to train, which means we need the applications submitted no later than March 10^th. (We will of course accept applications after the 10^th, but those for the Wistaria Festival need to be submitted by then).”

Wistaria Marketing Opportunity Available

The Chamber will be producing a booklet that we will be distributing to everyone that gets on the trolley to the vine, as well as at both Chamber information booths.  We expect to be printing 2,000 copies.  The booklet will have information about the vine, information about the town, a business directory and more.  We would like to include coupons for local businesses, with the intent of drawing people back to town after the festival (expiration dates should be at some date in the future).  Each of the coupons will be 1/4 page, and will include your business name, address, phone number, web address and the offer.  Size permitting, we will also include your logo.

Cost to place a ¼ page coupon in the booklet is free to members, $25 dollars to non-members.

If you would like to place an ad in the booklet that is not a coupon, or just want a larger ad, that is possible as well.  1/2 page ads (approx. 4″ high by 5.2″ wide) will be $50/members and full page ads (approx. 8.2″ high by 5.2″ wide) will be $100/members.  Please note, business card ads will be slightly different in size than the ½ page due to scalability.  Cost for non-members will be an additional $25.  All ads are black and white.

Please forward a high resolution copy of your logo (preferably 300dpi or higher), in .jpg, .bmp, or .tif format, to BillCoburn@SierraMadreChamber.com.  Deadline to be included in the booklet is March 11, 2011.

If you click here, you can download a form to provide us the information you’d like included in the booklet.  Drop it by the office (20 W. Montecito Ave., Ste. C), or fax it to us at (626) 306-1150 by this Friday.