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Ken Wong on Various Issues Surrounding MoCCA 2006
posted June 14, 2006
 

I read your blog piece about the 2006 MoCCA Art Festival and just wanted to let you and readers know that -- although we didn't quite match last year's blockbuster attendance -- we actually had quite a large crowd at the Festival this year.

According to our figures, there were an estimated 2470 or so paid attendees on Saturday and then 2167 or more on Sunday. Once we add in volunteers, press, special guests/panelists and other non-paying attendees (who, as we all know, are out on the floor shopping as well), that puts total weekend attendance in the 4700-4800 range.

I haven’t yet had a chance to review all of the pre- and post-publicity surrounding this year’s Festival, but I know we had several very nice “go-see” write ups in the weeks leading up to the show. Time Out New York magazine, for example, not only ran a full page piece about Charles Burns’ appearance at the Art Fest but also told us (although I was, of course, too busy to see it) that they were touting the Art Festival as an “Around Town” weekend pick for their WNBC-TV news segment. Metro New York (a free daily newspaper) also ran a nice Friday article about the Festival as one of their “Weekend Picks.” In addition to publicity, MoCCA placed paid Art Festival advertisements in the Village Voice in each of the three weeks leading up to the show.

And finally, although I must assume they were gone before you reached his table, Bryan Lee O'Malley's new Scott Pilgrim book was indeed at the show -- there was no need to wait a few weeks if you were one of the lucky 100 to snag a copy before they sold out.