How did you like the festivals this past weekend?

So the Coconut Grove Arts Festival and St. Stephen's Art Show have come and gone. The weather was incredible. I am told that the attendance on Saturday and Sunday broke records, they were able to tell this by the gate count. So that's pretty great. The art and food and music was great, but there were still a few complaints, so here we go.

I witnessed this myself and was told by a few people that the security people at both events were quite rude. I think the rent-a-cops for the weekend get overwhelmed and take things a bit too serious. People are out to have a good time and not break rules, so there really isn't a need for the rudeness by the guards. I was spoken to quite harshly by one clueless guard who really should not have been dealing with people. And it gets especially insulting when locals are talked to this way by people who are paid to patrol streets that are not even theirs. The locals don't like it and I can't blame them.

The police however, were the complete opposite, and were very polite and always friendly at every point, even in the hectic center of town, where large crowds had to be controlled at crosswalk intersections. The cops never lost their cool.

One of the strangest things of the whole weekend was the Camel cigarettes booth set up right out front of CocoWalk in the center of town. You could not miss this. But even though they were trying to push cigarettes on people, they made it quite difficult.

They would only pick and choose certain people who were allowed into their tent. If you were not a smoker, you were not permitted in, so I guess that was nice, in that they were not trying to turn non-smokers into smokers, but the smokers that were permitted in where treated very suspiciously, people had to show their ID's and also answer many strange, personal questions.

Of course the strangest thing was the signs that asked for "adult tobacco consumers," but asked for these tobacco consumers to "not smoke." Maybe they were pushing chewing tobacco, we don't know because no one we know was permitted into the booth. And while no photos or video were permitted, we did take a photo of the contradicting signs.

The Tea Room at St. Stephen's is always a favorite of ours, or used to be, because this year, like last year, we never got our tea or clotted cream. The tea room attendees were quite strange and quite rude. A friend working one of the booths at the festival told us the same and asked, "Did we pay extra for the smugness?" We didn't stick around long enough to deal with the attitude. The men and women who run the English tea room were rude. And have been rude for two years in a row now.

And like in previous years, the $10 gyros always seem like a total ripoff. While some sell for $6 and some for $7 and $8, the $10 seems a bit much and really quite out of line. Many complained about the $10 gate fee at the Grove Festival and locals complained about the reduced $5 fee because it was per day, and not for the whole weekend as in previous years. Many locals told me they did not attend the big festival, but did attend St. Stephen's and the other events surrounding the big festival.

The people at St. Stephen's gates were very polite and even if you were not stamped on the way out and wanted to return, they would let you in again on your word. This was nice to see.

But for the most part the festivals are great. Even with the excessive traffic, it's a long, fun weekend with lots to do. Most Grovites go all three days and find something different to enjoy each day. I always end up buying some piece of art and at an event last night, people were showing me jewelry they purchased over the weekend. So I think the artists did quite well. One told me on Saturday that he had sold more on Saturday by 11 am than he did the whole previouis year at the festival, so that said something.