Renaissance

Despite Bigger Competition and Budget Woes, Hamtramck's Labor Day Fest Lives

August 31, 2012, 7:47 AM

There's Arts, Beats And Eats in Royal Oak and the jazz festival in Detroit.

Then there is the Hamtramck Labor Day Festival.

Hamtramck city officials, business owners and other volunteers have made the 2012 Hamtramck Labor Day happen after cancellation was threatened due to lack of funds, WWJ-AM reports.

The “Blue Collar Bash” is set for noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1 through Monday, Sept. 3, complete with a carnival, live music, art fair, Polish Day parade, kids’ games, food and drinks, eating contests, a canoe race, and more.

So, how did it come together?

“The carnival and some of the people who’ve done it in the past, they basically fronted us the money to keep it going, and we trimmed back some of the expenditures of this thing that had gotten out of hand, we just went through the books and trimmed everything we thought we didn’t need,” festival co-chair Shannon Lowell, owner of Hamtramck’s Cafe 1923, told the station. 

Hamtramck is battling a budget deficit as home prices sink and businesses close. Its struggling school district is under the control of an emergency financial manager.

Organizers had hoped to raise $20,000 through the website Kickstarter — and that effort failed, with less than $2,000 in contributions.


Read more:  WWJ-AM


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