Shooting at a festival. Are we crazy???

Yes, that was the question of this past weekend asked by our friends and family. We participated in NW Folklife for the 4th year in a row and for the 2nd time in 5 years there was a shooting at the Seattle Center during the festival. So now we have concerned friends and family asking why do we keep doing this festival, why don't we find something else to do?

Well, as far as festivals on Memorial Day weekend, this is our best option in the Pacific NW for this weekend, for us sales were good, 3 out of the 4 years we've done this show our overall sales have been above our show average, it's a local show, etc.

Here's an article from our local news:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018297127_shooting27.html?syndication=rss

So, are we crazy to continue to participate? Our thoughts are that the odds of anything happening to us are really low and we're just as likely to be killed in a car accident on the way home with the crazy holiday traffic. Seattle Center is a huge complex that attracts tourists and locals year round, this could happen at any time at any one of the many events that occur here year round.

So, have you experienced incidents like this at shows? How do you respond to family and friends?

I can understandyour concern, Ruth, and pretty much agree with you.

We participated in events in the Detroit area for many years. This is a large geographical area but it was the downtown, on the riverfront, area that concerns many residents and you hear all the time, "we never go downtown. It is too dangerous." I've been on the organizing end of several events also, the best time was being on the organizing committee for the events surrounding the Super Bowl. I attended security meetings that included the police department, the sheriff's department, the border patrol and the CIA where we were all briefed about security issues.

Usually these incidents happen far from where you are. You are unlikely to be faced with a gunman and often it is people who know each other who get involved in a shooting. There was some shooting at Detroit River Days a couple of years ago so the following year they fenced the entire area in and did a security search of people entering. Then last year near the end some gangs got together and swarmed the fences and caused havoc.

That event included a lot of parties, so I guess I'd avoid attending events that had that element involved.

You know your event, you know the security and you carefully choose. Who attends the NW Folklife festival? Probably not teenagers and gangs. Security will probably be even tougher. No one, not the cities, not the facilities and not the organizers want these money generating events to go away and they will take sterner measures.

Shootings happen and people have guns. Michigan even has an open carry law now. While working on a big festival in Royal Oak a few years ago the contract specifically stated no guns allowed as the festival was privately owned (and fenced in with security at the gates in a large area downtown) but the gun carriers took the event to court and we were told it was a denial of their right to carry so guns were allowed. There was a lot of press about it (I think you can find it in here in the archives). The event came. People reported seeing a few people with guns on their hips and that other people made snarky remarks to them. No incidents occurred.

Best wishes.

P.S. Hope I didn't scare you Annette ;)

Replies

Connie Mettler June 1, 2012 at 7:57am

I can understandyour concern, Ruth, and pretty much agree with you.

We participated in events in the Detroit area for many years. This is a large geographical area but it was the downtown, on the riverfront, area that concerns many residents and you hear all the time, "we never go downtown. It is too dangerous." I've been on the organizing end of several events also, the best time was being on the organizing committee for the events surrounding the Super Bowl. I attended security meetings that included the police department, the sheriff's department, the border patrol and the CIA where we were all briefed about security issues.

Usually these incidents happen far from where you are. You are unlikely to be faced with a gunman and often it is people who know each other who get involved in a shooting. There was some shooting at Detroit River Days a couple of years ago so the following year they fenced the entire area in and did a security search of people entering. Then last year near the end some gangs got together and swarmed the fences and caused havoc.

That event included a lot of parties, so I guess I'd avoid attending events that had that element involved.

You know your event, you know the security and you carefully choose. Who attends the NW Folklife festival? Probably not teenagers and gangs. Security will probably be even tougher. No one, not the cities, not the facilities and not the organizers want these money generating events to go away and they will take sterner measures.

Shootings happen and people have guns. Michigan even has an open carry law now. While working on a big festival in Royal Oak a few years ago the contract specifically stated no guns allowed as the festival was privately owned (and fenced in with security at the gates in a large area downtown) but the gun carriers took the event to court and we were told it was a denial of their right to carry so guns were allowed. There was a lot of press about it (I think you can find it in here in the archives). The event came. People reported seeing a few people with guns on their hips and that other people made snarky remarks to them. No incidents occurred.

Best wishes.

P.S. Hope I didn't scare you Annette ;)
- Annette Piper > Connie Mettler June 2, 2012 at 9:13pm
  
  Right, so I'm not so keen on coming to visit you guys now.... (until I forget, which as I'm growing older seems to take less and less time!)
Pauline Haas-Vaughn May 30, 2012 at 1:46pm

Honestly, my opinion is that if it happened once I would say "well that can happen anywhere" but the fact that it has happened twice in 5 years would cause more concern for me about it being a risky area/event. Too bad they did not outlaw guns in the area during events. It seems past Mayor Nickels had a sensible proposal, though it may have been hard to enforce. On the positive side, it does sound from the article that the city has appropriate policing for festival. Just my 2-cents...
Annette Piper May 29, 2012 at 7:45pm

I'd probably be having second thoughts about attending Ruth, but shootings are pretty rare down here in Australia so I'm not used to hearing about them anywhere that I might be!

This reply was deleted.