Festival Permits and Street Vendor Ordinances

The Town of Seagrove Street Vendor Ordinance states that an application for a permit will be denied if the Board concludes:

5) that the proposed vending operation does interfere with a previously approved vending operation....

A festival permit had already been issued to the Seagrove Pottery Festival when the Town Council voted to approve a permit for a second festival. The Seagrove Pottery Festival has operated for the past 26 years (at the same location), and has been protected by the Town of Seagrove as a "Special Event" for many of those years.

One may find it curious why the Town of Seagrove determined that a second festival would not interfere with the original Seagrove Pottery Festival. Seagrove mayor Mike Walker has stated that his interest is in keeping the Festival as a top tourist attraction, and that a second festival would decrease attendance at the original festival.

Following is quoted from the Triad Business Journal Steve Ivey's article of July 4, 2008. The entire article is reproduced below.

Michael Walker, Seagrove's mayor, has said he will remain neutral on whether the town should have one or two festivals this fall. His interest, he said, is keeping the festival's place among the top tourist attractions.

"When you pull 60 or more potters from the one festival, it's going to make a difference," he said. "Attendance is probably going to go down for everybody."

It appears the Town's decision to issue a subsequent permit for a competing festival contradicts Mayor Walker's comments on neutrality. The Street Vendor Ordinance is clear in it's wording and intent. The Seagrove Pottery Festival is a nationally recognized Top 20 event. If the Town had remained neutral, why wouldn't they at least follow a strict interpretation of the above ordinance before issuing a second permit?



Friday, July 4, 2008
Factions split in debate over pottery festival
The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area - by Steve Ivey The Business Journal Serving the Greater Triad Area

Dissension among the pottery community in the Seagrove area may fracture one of the region's top annual tourist attractions this fall.

The split among local artisans could result in two competing pottery festivals on the same weekend in November, a change some community members worry will hurt overall attendance and, in turn, the pottery trade so vital to the area's economy.

In one camp are supporters of the Museum of N.C. Traditional Pottery, which promotes and runs the Seagrove Pottery Festival each November -- an event that draws between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors annually. It has been recognized as one of the top 20 festivals in the Southeast.

On the other side are Seagrove potters linked to the N.C. Pottery Center, an exhibition center two blocks from the museum. The potters -- including well-known artisans such as Ben Owen III, Mark Hewitt and Will McCanless -- contend they are losing their say in the annual event to outsiders.

In reaction, on June 27, the group asked for and received a permit from the town of Seagrove to host its own separate festival on the same weekend in November.

The divide has roiled the small community in southern Randolph County and left many of the roughly 125 potters and town officials concerned about the festival, which for 26 years has been a major economic engine for the town and their businesses.

Debate between the two sides has grown vitriolic at times. Potters who split from the museum have accused officials there of "hatefulness" and "counter-productive influence." Museum officials have called the other group a "cancer" on the town and said they are "cannibalizing" the achievements of the museum's deceased former leader.

Michael Walker, Seagrove's mayor, has said he will remain neutral on whether the town should have one or two festivals this fall. His interest, he said, is keeping the festival's place among the top tourist attractions.

"When you pull 60 or more potters from the one festival, it's going to make a difference," he said. "Attendance is probably going to go down for everybody."

Dissatisfaction among some potters in Seagrove has been brewing since 2006, when the state legislature added Lee County to the official "Seagrove Pottery Area." These potters worried that potters from the Lee County town of Sanford ­-- 50 miles away -- who have held a festival every spring since 2002, would try to take over the Seagrove festival and only promote and drive traffic toward the galleries and shops.

They also were opposed to a new welcome center at the Museum of N.C. Traditional Pottery, which included maps and information about potters in Sanford and not just Seagrove.

Byron Knight, owner of Blue Moon Gallery and Ole Fish House Pottery in Seagrove, was among the 60 or so potters who supported the permit to host a second festival. He said Seagrove potters were concerned the original festival and museum were straying from promoting local artisans and businesses.

"We here just felt like we didn't have a voice anymore," he said. "When we tried to voice an opinion, we didn't have anybody to talk to."

In their petition to town officials, the dissident group also claimed the museum had expanded the festival so a quarter of the 100 exhibitors were non-pottery crafts, mostly from outside Seagrove, including some from Virginia, Ohio and overseas. The museum organizers, the petition said, were interested in "increasing divisiveness and turmoil within our community."

Knight said the new festival, to be called the Festival of Seagrove Potters, will be "run by the potters for the potters, so everybody has a voice in what happens with running the show."

The imbroglio escalated earlier this year with the death of Richard Gillson, the museum's longtime director. He fell from a ladder in the museum and died in January.

Museum opponents say the museum has since come under the influence of board member Don Hudson, partner in a Sanford pottery studio.

But Hudson said his critics have used the period following Gillson's death to make a power play for the festival.

Hudson distributed 30,000 copies of an opinion pamphlet titled "Frankenstein's Monster," likening the supporters of the N.C. Pottery Center and their upstart festival to "a monster run amok."

In the pamphlet, Hudson says the center is in financial trouble and says its supporters "plant seeds of discord and strife in a community already under stress of intense competition from within and even more so from without."

In an interview, Hudson said the center and its supporters are only interested in promoting the town's "superstars."

"This renegade group started their own map (of area potters) which is elitist and exclusionary, and they cut out everybody they did not like. And they do not like Sanford."

The festival generates more than $50,000 each fall for the museum from gate receipts and booth rentals at Seagrove Elementary School. Many potters in town also make enough money during the November festival to get them through lean winter months. Hudson said supporters of a second festival are only hurting themselves by "destroying something that has worked so well just to gain control."

In the interview, Hudson said he would challenge the center's supporters to a public debate in Seagrove.

Knight compared his group's efforts to the Ann Arbor Summer Arts Festival, held every June in Michigan. That fair started as one event but eventually evolved into seven separate events.

"The object is not to hurt anybody," he said. "People who are not from this community are calling the shots on the show."

Knight said the new festival has not sold any booths yet, because doing so before they won a permit from the city would have been premature. But he said his group has more than 60 supporters, including some potters who have declined to participate in the museum festival the past few years.

And Knight conceded that the N.C. Pottery Center, which supports the second show, has requested additional state funds to stay afloat. But he said supporters of a separate festival plan to keep all the proceeds in Seagrove.

In their petition, the group said their festival, to be held at the former Luck's Beans plant in town, now owned by Seagrove Foods, will contribute a portion of the revenue to an arts program in Seagrove schools. They also vowed to make all of their financial books from the show publicly available.

"I think the festival has gotten away from the people," Knight said. "There have been all kinds of accusations. But we just want everybody to feel like they have a voice."