Jaxtoberfest relocating from downtown to SJTC

[coredumped]

The SJTC is a perfect example of rampant american consumerism. The whole place exists because people are being told that they want new clothes, brand names, frappachinos, BUY BUY BUY!

SHHHHHH!!!! These people are funding my retirement and my credit card rewards with their massive consumer debt!

So who's excited for OneSpark Nocatee?

[fsquid]

high temp last year hit 91 during the festival.  It will be brutal unless they can find some greenspace.

[acme54321]

high temp last year hit 91 during the festival.  It will be brutal unless they can find some greenspace.

Everyone can just duck inside Dillard's!

[Tacachale]

The bottom line is, it sure will be fun for tens of thousands of people to drink a bunch of beer and then drive around on SJTC property.

[Sentient]

The bottom line is, it sure will be fun for tens of thousands of people to drink a bunch of beer and then drive around on SJTC property.

What did the people do last year?  Where did the 50k attendees drive after attending at the Shipyards?  Public roads, 95, I-10?


Or did they all come by boat?

[Tacachale]

The bottom line is, it sure will be fun for tens of thousands of people to drink a bunch of beer and then drive around on SJTC property.

What did the people do last year?  Where did the 50k attendees drive after attending at the Shipyards?  Public roads, 95, I-10?


Or did they all come by boat?

I took Uber, if I recall correctly.

[Sentient]

The bottom line is, it sure will be fun for tens of thousands of people to drink a bunch of beer and then drive around on SJTC property.

What did the people do last year?  Where did the 50k attendees drive after attending at the Shipyards?  Public roads, 95, I-10?


Or did they all come by boat?

I took Uber, if I recall correctly.

One answer in, 49,999 to go...

[johnnyliar]

Rode my bike!

[AngryChicken]

Who gives a rats ass where this lame event is held?  JAX is one of the best beer lovers cities in the USA with over a dozen fantastic local breweries.  And this event is serving.... none of those beers.  They are serving Blue Moon and Sam Adams.

They can move this bullshit event to the moon for all I care.

This really blows.  Take a great cultural festival and relocate it from downtown to an upscale shopping mall in the suburbs, one of the least cultural things I can think of.  They say it is because of the shipyards cleanup going on but this seems like a perfect event to move to Hemming Park if some of the surrounding streets were blocked off, what gives?  It says 50,000 went last year so it was a pretty good turn out.  I for one will not be attending if they have it at SJTC. 

http://jaxtoberfest.com/

[ricker]

Just wondering if moving the event to the "Town Center" might up the vehicular traffic counts and help engineer data needed to support / legitimize the proposed road widening project(S) ?
just a thought

[thelakelander]

To be honest, I don't think "most" people in Jax care where Jaxtoberfest is located. The mindset in Jax isn't significantly different from the general mindset across the majority of the country. This place is just a much smaller community than most of us believe. This is Dayton, OH with a lot more suburbs and a beach. This isn't meant to be a knock on Jax. It's just the reality of a smaller 200k city, consolidating with its core county.

I agree with the comment that most people wouldn't care in most places in America, or anywhere for that matter, people are pretty similar personality and interests-wise no matter where you are in the world from what I've found.  But this has nothing to do with Jacksonville being a smaller city.  My hometown Kalamazoo, MI was lame as hell when I was younger and people didn't care one way or another about anything like this, that was until they started improving downtown and holding large festivals like this downtown, not at shopping malls.  It gave people a different perspective and opinion of their city.  Still not the greatest place on earth but that town has seen huge improvements and civic pride as a result.  I've lived in Greenville, SC as well . . . . . same thing.  So I don't believe it's because Jacksonville is not the size of Chicago or Atlanta, etc.  Jacksonville is actually much bigger than those two smaller cities I've mentioned even if you just take the central area, not all of Duval County.  I believe the actual city populations of Kalamazoo and Greenville are both around 100k.

I guess I went about it the wrong way. I don't think it's a big deal that this event is moving to SJTC. I believe, we're making it a bigger deal than it really is because we're so focused on wanting to see DT Jax succeed. We've literally put it in our heads that a strip mall like SJTC actually competes against DT Jax. However, if we look, I'm sure we'll find several examples of private events moving, from some of the most vibrant downtown cores in the country, to other areas of their respective metropolitan areas regardless of city size.

[I-10east]

Upscale shopping mall? The dollar store and target?
Seriously, a terrible location, things like this belong downtown, not in a crappy plaza.

Well, by your definition, there are very few 'upscale malls' with EVERYTHING having to be upscale. Aventura Mall which I consider very upscale has Sears & JCP which I'll put Target over. That Target part of the SJTC is like an outparcel anyway; It probably should have been named something else to differentiate.

[Adam White]

I would consider SJTC as pretty upscale. It has a range of shops and the particularly 'upscale' ones are clustered together (more or less). That seems to be the trend these days.

I don't know why so many people hate on the SJTC. It's a good mall and it clearly serves a purpose.

[I-10east]

^^^+1000

[Bill Hoff]

Fyi: It was moved to SJTC because all of the other viable venues around Downtown were booked. Selling alcohol for-profit greatly limits the possible venues.