For Parkway-Area Museums, 'Made in America' Festival Was a Downer
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Cultural institutions along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway took a hit in the hundreds of thousands of dollars last weekend as the "Made in America" concert festival put a damper on attendance.
They enthusiastically praise all the benefits that "Made in America" brings to the city, but officials at the Parkway museums acknowledge there is a downside.
"Attendance was down about 50 percent, and revenues as well, on those two days," notes Norman Keys, spokesman for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
A similar assessment came from Troy Collins, senior vice president at the Franklin Institute.
"If you look back at our attendance averages prior to that event, we actually lose 50 to 60 thousand dollars during that Labor Day weekend," he said.
Collins suggests that part of the contribution the promoter makes to the United Way could go to making the nonprofits along the parkway whole. A spokesman for the mayor responded that the institutions should take that up with the promoter -- even though it's the city that negotiates the agreement that allows the ticketed event on the parkway.