Art galleries should be ecstatic about art festival crowds

I am a second homeowner in Breckenridge. I was in Breck last week when you ran an article about the local art galleries not wanting the art festivals to come back or wanting them moved to the skating rink or some other inconvenient place.

I find this amazing. The justification for this seemed to be that the festivals cause the town to be too crowded, rather than that it hurt business or some other rationale.

I am wondering if the Ullr Fest or the snow sculptures will be the next targets, because they also bring business (and sometimes crowds) to town.

I would think that if I were a gallery owner, I would be ecstatic to have a bunch of art lovers descend on the town.

When I come to the festival, I spend money there, which provides significant sales tax dollars to the town, and I shop at all the galleries, which provides money to the galleries and sales tax dollars to the town.

I took note of the fact that there was no claim by the gallery owners that their revenues were down on Fourth of July weekend.

Moving the event from the downtown area will surely reduce traffic at the event and sales tax dollars collected. I know that some who live there year-round would like to reduce the presence of those of us deemed outsiders, but I am surprised to find merchants in this category.

I enjoy the various events held throughout the year, even if the auto traffic is sometimes tiring. I don't think moving the venue outside of walking distance will help the auto traffic.