Why We Didn’t Table At the Maumee Summer Fair in 2025

This week­end was the Maumee Summer Fair. SHoWLE was not there this year and I want­ed to explain why. The first cou­ple of years we had a booth there were great. We were on West Wayne Street and we had a lot of foot traf­fic as we were near the beer and food and the kids zone. Which is the holy tri­fec­ta…

Douglas Berger — President of SHoWLE

Then in 2023 there was a mas­sive recon­struc­tion of the down­town Maumee area and they had to shoe horn every­one into a small­er foot­print. The orga­niz­ers had us in the very back park­ing lot next to a toi­let. Foot traf­fic was very much low­er than before. We said no prob­lem that when they get the con­struc­tion done things will go back to how it was before.

In 2024, we got our appli­ca­tion in as soon as the process opened and we got the very first booth spot on Conant St and we were so hap­py. The prob­lem was they rearranged the booth space again and had them all spread up and down Conant. Our booth was at the far west­ern end of the fes­ti­val area, across from the Indoor Theater, with most of the action hap­pen­ing way down by Wayne St. Foot traf­fic was min­i­mal AND the booth next to ours was for the group try­ing to recall most of the Maumee city coun­cil. They were nice peo­ple but in their zeal to get recall peti­tions signed they would basi­cal­ly block Conant St. and what lit­tle foot traf­fic we did see was way less than if we were fur­ther east and the cit­i­zen group was­n’t next to us imped­ing the traf­fic flow.

The SHoWLE Board decid­ed to sit 2025 out. Besides not believ­ing we would have a good spot, the fact we need more than the usu­al 3 or four peo­ple to help out played a part in the deci­sion.

I looked at the lay­out they had for 2025 and it was much bet­ter than 2024. The booths were most­ly on Conant and East Wayne and that cor­ner was where they set­up the stage for the bands. I think, if we had been there this year we would have had more con­tacts and inter­est.

I think too that if the cur­rent fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is like it is now, we need to be vis­i­ble to those who sup­port our val­ues. We may not be com­mon to Maumee but we nev­er had an issue at the Summer Fair.

Let us know what you think? Should we attend the Summer Fair next year?

Another Old West End Fest In The Books

SHoWLE enjoyed anoth­er Old West End Festival on June 1st and 2nd this year. We had sev­er­al peo­ple join our email list and we talked to many more who stopped by. New this year was a dona­tion col­lec­tion box and we brought in $9.18.

The Prize Wheel was just as pop­u­lar with the kids and the young at heart but it did suf­fer some dam­age from overnight rain between Saturday and Sunday. We will have it restored and bet­ter than ever for the Maumee Summer Fair in August.

SHoWLE wants to thank the vol­un­teers that spent their week­end help­ing staff the booth — Ed, Michaelene, Anne, and Shawn. We also thank the donors that fund­ed the booth space and much of the swag we hand­ed out this week­end.

Here are some snaps tak­en dur­ing the event: