Maumee River Fest or Maumee Brewing Fest

" The idea of a festival to celebrate this amazing feature of the area is great. Long overdue, really. We should have "Maumee River Days" and have bands on the promenade stage and boats, boat rides, environmental displays, the Coast Guard, fishing expo, in-water boat show. Invite the yacht clubs, have a fish fry. Bring the Jet Express over with people FROM Port Clinton. (Actually, I think that they can dock at the yacht basin near the back of One Seagate. Combine with the in-water wooden boat show held in August. Have the Navy back."

I hereby nominate you for Director Of Downtown Activities. Great ideas!

Promenade Park and the rest of our waterfront is so under utilized. Other cities would LOVE to have a waterfront like ours. And, most cities that do utilize the heck out of it.

For whatever the reason(s), we do not. Very sad.

"back in the day" I remember downtown alive and well. The Parties in the Park were packed and enjoyable. Portside was a fun place to visit.

Why this city has let its treasure of being on the water just be wasted perplexes me.

Portside went down for the same reason the Erie Street Market went down: incompetence and favoritism in city government. As long as this city is in thrall to the ole boy network and the present political structure, nothing will ever change.

I wish the Chinese would buy the whole city. Maybe we could then get rid of the entrenched rot.

Two things here:

1) Promenade Park is closed right now while it is undergoing renovations, so while that is an ideal location, it isn't an option right now. That might be why they chose the Oliver House instead.

2) Who made this happen? This likely wasn't the city's idea, but the brainchild of a group that got together and said "hey, know what would be cool?" So in their planning, I would guess that either a) someone involved in this is also involved with the MBBC, or b) the planners said "well where would be an easy place to serve alcohol?" If they have it at a bar, they don't need to worry about permits for alcohol and all that.

Alright, this is a good opportunity to expound on some things. The comments here are exactly the comments that bother me most about this town.

I hear all the time about how great downtown used to be, and why it sucks now, and what the city should do to fix it.

SHUT. UP.

Want to know how it can be as good as you remember it? GO! Go downtown and do something! Go downtown and spend some money! Go to the art walks, go to the restaurants and bars, go to the Valentine and catch an old movie! This is a free market. If there is a demand for things in downtown, there will be a response.

And let me remind you, the people in this city are the SAME people who bitch every time someone comes along and wants to fund a project downtown. "No, don't build a park in downtown, it's wasting my tax dollars!" "No, don't plant trees downtown, it's wasting my tax dollars!" "Gee, the city really should do something to clean downtown up and make it more appealing for me to visit." Either have your cake or eat it, you can't choose both.

What ever happened to Party in the Park? It was always a good time...

Didn't Citifest run party in the park?

I think the location is ideal, as one of the KEY points of the event is to focus on the new metro park that is going to open on the river. The oliverhouse is walking distance from the new park, and is in fact the closest business to it.

Take a look at the sponsor page: http://www.maumeebayriverfestival.org/SPONSORS-AND-BOOTHS.html

It's not a Maumee Bay Brewing Company event. They are just offering their space, and serving up some tasty brews to celebrate.

No need to be so cynical. :)

Sounds like a great idea. There will be a ton of folks downtown for the Komen race, so hopefully they'll stay for the festival. I will be there for sure!

I know. I guess when your relationship with the river and the maumee bay, which is a few miles downriver, is direct contact, the location seems odd. I remember the full use of the promenade park area and portside as a boater. It was great. It was good for the marine industry. I always felt that the steam plant would have been a better science and industry space, and that Portside with its now blacked out windows was best as retail.
The timing of Portside in relation to the seagate center and the HCR manor care building sucked.
Not trying to be cynical. Trying to be logical. I had questions.

It's just a conversation in a minor thread on a small forum.

But I appreciate your passion, nonetheless.

I appreciate the comments of anybody who has ideas about how to fix it. Even if I don't share the vision. I hope that my ideas were taken in the same way.

I hope that the Maumee Bay/Brewing Fest is an enormous success. Why would I not? A rising tide lifts all the boats. I was just envisioning deeper water. I miss it. I hope that they succeed and two more events pop up too.
But I also think that a more centralized, coordinated effort might have a greater impact, faster. I'm getting old.

it's the first year of a hopefully multi year event
if a better location rears it's head, no reason it can't move in the future

Yeah, or even grow/expand. I do hope that it is repeated.

So upso.... the logo??? :P

justread... what do you mean by logo?
I don't think they have an official logo yet...

this image from their website?

it's clearly something made by a volunteer.

check out the ad in this week's free press. it's quite nice

Bring back rally by the river and smoke on the water too.

Clean water, great beer.
Sounds like a beer commercial.

Meanwhile... Why is it called Maumee Bay River Festival? It is not held on the Maumee Bay?

Oh... right.... the brewery.

In Mobile Bay, they call it the HopsFest. But it is for the river.
http://mobilebaykeeper.org/node/441

Anyone go to this yesterday ???

"What ever happened to Party in the Park? It was always a good time..."

38 Special broke up.

I went.. $5pp, not bad. Had a beer or two, shopped at the middlegrounds. Didn't get to tour the new metropark there. I did ride the sandpiper ($2/pp) and got some info on the river and how maumee bay is the fresh water inlet (hint hint on the name of the festival), and just had a good time. We also got to walk around the little coast guard boat. It's the first year, and I liked it.

The metropark isn't going to be built (or whatever you consider the creation of a metropark) until 2015, so there probably wouldn't have been much to tour just yet anyway!

I'm confused on them using the whole "clean water" line in their advertising of the Fest. The Maumee River/Bay are anything but clean...

The fed/state have put a big focus on cleaning up the great lakes and it's major tributaries (one of which is the Maumee River), so that could be what they're referring to. Getting people to rally around the cleanup of our greatest resource is a noble cause.