Coconut Grove Arts Festival helps boost business – for some

Since 1963, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival has been drawing thousands of people annually, producing the community’s largest influx of cash all year.

But for residents of the West Grove, the festival’s effects are nearly imperceptible.

For the 150 businesses in the commercial core of the Grove, the Coconut Grove Art Festival is the busiest week of the year, according to David Collins, the executive director of the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District.

“The Coconut Grove Arts Festival brings into cash registers in Coconut Grove more money than any week in December,” Collins said. “In other words, if you pick the biggest retail week of the year, it’s the one that the festival happens during.”

But “the stuff that goes on down there doesn’t really affect what’s going on over here,” said Christopher Jones, a barber at Headliners Barbershop on Grand Avenue. “As soon as you cross 32nd street, it’s like a whole different atmosphere.”

Jones attributes the lack of West Grove attendance at the festival to the economy.

“People are holding on to everything they have,” Jones said. “So to go and buy some art, that’s way out of the question.”

Tickets are priced at $10, but just the notion of seeing art that costs thousands of dollars is enough to keep people away, according to Jones.

“When you see someone else buying a picture for $30,000 or something, it’s like what the hell is going on? Why don’t I have this money?” he said.

With 360 artists from all over the world, the internationally renown festival attracts around 100 to 200 thousand visitors each year. While the figures from this year are still being tallied up, last year there was approximately $4 million of artwork sold in three days at the show.

Although a portion of the festival’s revenue from ticket sales benefits the Coconut Grove Arts and Historical Association’s Building Fund, much of the money spent at the festival goes straight to the Grove’s restaurants, stores, hotels and churches.

“This is the best weekend of the year, we see a lot of people coming by,” said Lalo Durazo, owner of Jaguar restaurant, also on Grand Avenue. “We get people that come every year to the festival and then they come to the restaurant, and we get new people that come to the festival and somehow hear about the restaurant, and we get locals as well. It’s a huge increase in revenue.”

Resident West Grove cookie lady

however, said she has seen an increase in tourists looking for a taste of the real Coconut Grove at the Gourmet Cookie Cafe. She recalled an instance last week when a couple visited her shop after getting off at a tour bus stop.

According to Jackson, they wanted to spend their money with locals in the historical side of town instead of the commercial district.

“It made me very happy that they wanted to stop at my store for a cup of coffee as a part of the historical Grove experience,” Jackson said.