On the August 28th broadcast of my radio program "The Voice of Reason" I poked fun at our annual Popcorn Festival. I compared it to other festivals in Ohio. I pointed out that The Pumpkin Festival in Circleville has so many pumpkins and pumpkin products on display that it is obvious that it is in fact a pumpkin festival. I made the same observation about the Tomato Fest in Reynoldsburg: tomatoes and tomato products everywhere! Also, Twinfest in Twinsburg.
I find it ironic that at a Popcorn Festival, it is difficult to find any popcorn. I'm not talking about the pocorn that some vendors sell. The same vendors sell the same popcorn at the pumpking festival and the tomato festival, etc. What I'm talkng about is a display of popcorn and popcorn related prducts, displays, exhibitions, decorations and, whatever else might serve to make it obvious to one and all that ours is a Popcorn Festival. Nothing like this exists!
I added that what can be seen at our festival are lots and lots of incredibly expensive sandwiches. I suggested that perhaps we should rename our festival the "Incredibly Expensive Sandwich Festival".
I have addressed some serious subjects on the radio over the past several months. Some have illicited some unhappy remarks but, not many. It is interesting to me that I have received more comments about a little joke about the popcorn festival than I have other more serious matters. Some folks agreed with me. More seemed to think that I was being too critical. Well, the truth is the truth! We could just as well call our festival the "Deep Fried Pickle Festival". There was as much of that as there was popcorn.
Over the course of the three days of Popcorn Festival, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with many out of town visitors. They came from Elyria, Sandusky, Lima, Dayton and, as far away as Florida. In every case, at some point in our conversations, I was asked, " Where's the popcorn?" I tried, in each case, to be a good ambassador for our city and explained Marion's history with popcorn. I told visitors about the old Betty Zane Popcorn Co, Wyandot Popcorn and, of all the microwave popcorn that is produced here. I even pointed out that we have a popcorn museum. Several of the visitors told me that they knew about the popcorn museum. I asked how they liked it. They didn't know, it was closed.
My point here is simple. If we are going to have a POPCORN festival, some effort should be made by the organizers to have something that shouts to all visitors "This is a pocorn festival!"
If the organizers find that too challenging then maybe we should just call it something else. How about "The Incredibly Expensive Sandwich Festival"?
