By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Visitors to Communiversity ArtsFest should have to pay to attend the annual downtown fair, said a councilwoman who wants to use some of admission fee to reimburse the town for its expenses to police the event and clean up afterwards.
Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller said Tuesday that it cost taxpayers about $30,000 for police and public works to staff Communiversity last month. She did not have an admission price in mind or how it should be split between the Arts Council of Princeton, which runs Communiversity, Princeton University and the town.
The fair regularly draws more than 40,000 people — greater than the entire population of a town of around 30,000 — and evolved into a regional happening rather than just a local event. Yet so large a gathering has lead to traffic “nightmares” in town and been “too crowded,” she said.
“It would be great if it would diminish the crowd,” she said of an admission fee.
Her comments come one day after the leader of the Arts Council went before the Princeton Council touching on Communiversity, the largest event in the community.
Arts Council executive director Jeff Nathanson, making his annual presentation to the governing body, talked of wanting to work with the town on a fiscal impact study of Communiversity.
“It has grown exponentially over the years and draws crowds of over 40,000 people. There’s a lot of good in that, because it brings so many people into town and it does so much for local residents,” he said. “And we also know that there’s an impact. And we want to really understand the good, the bad and the ugly.”
He did not reject out of hand the idea of an admission fee.
“There’s been a great value in it being a free event,” he said. “That being said, we also, every year, ponder this huge crowd and what its value could be.”
He estimated that it costs the Arts Council, the university and the town anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 for Communiversity.
“If even a percentage of the 40,000 attendees paid in a couple of bucks, it would add up,” Mr. Nathanson said.
Princeton University director of community and regional affairs Kristin S. Appelget said Tuesday that it would be “premature” for the university to comment either for or against an admission charge, given how that topic should be part of an overall evaluation of the event.
