Downtown Festivals Kind Of All Look The Same

My wife and I went downtown this weekend to check out the Cinco de Mayo event that was going on downtown. While I was there, something occurred to me. In my opinion, most of the downtown festivals in Denver kind of look the same.

I mean, the majority of the festivals that I see downtown involve a carnival game/ride section, food, a couple acts on stages, and a series of booths that are either informational or sell stuff.  The vast majority of the festival, by a good majority, is the series of booths that are either informational or sell stuff. As I was walking through these booths at the Cinco de Mayo event, I noticed that they were the exact same ones that were at the last PrideFest event (I think that’s what it was) that we happened to stop by in downtown Denver.

Seriously. There were some cable/satellite television booths. There were booths selling inflatable mallets, hats, art, and other such things. There were political and/or social issue booths like information about spaying/neutering your pets. There was more, but that’s the general gist…and they were all the same booths I remember being there during PrideFest. The carnival game/ride section looked exactly the same as well.

Granted, a few of the food items were a bit different for the Cinco de Mayo event, but not the majority. There were still carts for funnel cakes and all that sort of thing. Really, there were more that were similar than were different.

All in all, the acts going on the stages (I saw two) and the crowd were the only real measurable differences between the Cinco de Mayo event and PrideFest. That got me thinking, is it just the fact that we’re having an event for a particular purpose that works here, or should these events actually be different? I just didn’t feel very Cinco de Mayo when the event looked almost exactly the same as any other event I’ve gone to on those grounds. I don’t really need to keep going to those same booths and same food stands absent something I’m doing there to celebrate the particular event in some distinguishable way.

I’m probably just being a curmudgeon about this, but it struck me while I was there. It makes my wife happy to go to these festivals, so I’ll probably keep going. If it were up to me though, it kind of feels like I’ve already done all I need to do there and don’t need to go again, regardless of a new reason to do the exact same thing.