So Muncie Indiana is known for a huge Mardi Gras party in the streets of downtown.  It’s a great idea to have an event that people can come out, drink, watch live bands, and show some boobs all in the name of fun.  And normally I’m all for anything to do with partying.  But this year they’ve just went off the deep end.

Here’s the deal, we just got two feet of snow in the last couple days and it’s just finally starting to get cleared out.  Kids have been out of school and things have been crazy around here.  So while I was on my way to the YMCA this morning I walked by the area this event will be held (South Walnut St) and notices that the city had paid THOUSANDS of dollars to have street crews go and and TRUCK the snow away from this area.  That’s right, I said truck it away.  Does anybody else see the issue here?  We have people snowed in, we have cars with 5 feet of snow around them, side streets are terrible, country roads are a mess, and our city is paying street crews to clear out downtown so no one will show up in sub zero temps and they’ll have another failed event.

Our downtown development has been having bad luck with their events the last couple years.  Last year’s Halloween Madness was a total disaster, less than a thousand people showed up and the city lost tens of thousands of dollars.  And before that they had Lynard Skynard in town the they only had about half as many people there as they expected, again losing money.  How many events can they have that totally fail?  It’s nice to see them “developing downtown” like this.

Here’s my prediction for the event.  I just looked at the weather, Friday we’ll get 1-3 more inches, and about another inch on Saturday (the day of the event).  The temperature is supposed to be about 16 but the wind chill will be about 3*F.  Oh, and did I mention that Larry the Cable Guy will is playing two sold out shows (about 16000 tickets sold) that night?  So do they really expect girls to come out and “earn” beads in the cold?  I doubt it when most bars in town (including the one work at) are having Mardi Gras parties and they have HEAT?

Here’s my suggestion, move the event to late April.  The event is officially called “Muncie Gras” so why does it have to line up with the real Mardi Gras (Feb 20).  Go with late April, the college kids will be still in town, it will be warm, and the will double the number of people that come out (in past years as many as 12000 people showed for Muncie Gras).  If all this keeps happening to Downtown Development I’ll be happy to see them stop having events.  It’s not that I don’t want them to happen, but they just don’t plan and make some stupid decisions. 

We’ll see what happens come Saturday night.  I’ll be sure to let you know, shoot I would go take pictures but I’m not paying $10 (advance) to get in to this thing.  I’ll be in a warm bar watching the ladies show it all.