The 2022 Wyandotte Street Art Fair will exercise a compromise with the city’s Social District, an area in which designated containers of alcohol may be consumed outdoors, with a partial moratorium of the social district, which will allow the WSAF to activate its beverage license, which is important to the event’s profitability, in the grassy area, and sidewalks and streets, adjacent to First and Elm streets.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – A compromise between the city’s social district and the 2022 Street Art Fair will allow the WSAF to profitably activate its beverage license while maintaining most of the social district.
The city’s social district, enacted during the pandemic, allows outside consumption of alcohol in special containers in designated areas.
The annual WSAF, which has an adult beverage license, relies on alcohol sales to provide a key component of the event’s profitability.
At the direction of the City Council, Special Events Coordinator Heather Thiede-Champlin and Downtown Development Authority Director Joe Gruber developed a compromise between the DDA’s SD and WSAF’s conflicting resolutions.
The 2022 WSAF, which runs July 13 to 16, will allow the social district to activate until 11 p.m. within the SD and WSAF footprint.
The WSAF beverage license will apply within the grassy area, as well as the sidewalks and streets, in the area of First and Elm streets, which will institute a partial moratorium of the SD in that area only for the four days of the WSAF, and which will not impede any business SD permit holders.
Parking lot 1, between Oak and Elm streets and the Detroit River, will not be used as an event area, but will be utilized for parking for nearby businesses and event attendees.
In addition, acoustical (non-amplified) musical entertainment will be allowed in the grassy area and along Biddle Avenue.
The DDA will provide lighting, entranceway items and activities in the grassy area, which will be used spring through fall, to attract patrons to the downtown and the SD for programs and special events.