Remember MystiQal, the Mardi Gras celebration held in Victory Park and the West End? Word has come down that the 2010 installment will not happen. Tracy Martin Taylor, the publisher of Quick and FD Luxe, and the GM over arts and entertainment for the DMN, sent word to her staff yesterday that the plug was being pulled:
We have decided not to execute MystiQal in 2010 and resume the event in 2011. There are many factors that lead to this decision but ultimately I believe going dark in 2010 supports our long term event strategy more than executing it in a way that I feel hurts the brand that has been built over the past two years.
Currently there is no plan to make a public announcement as that would likely only draw negative attention and again, my goal is to preserve the reputation that has been built. However, we do need to address any clients pending. Below are the reasons that support the decision and feel free to share them with your pending clients.
MystiQal 2010 is competing with
1. The NBA All-Stars in the market during the same time frame thus causing us to move our date
2. The Super Bowl is the day following our event (If the Saints are in it, that will be a huge draw from our market/event)
3. Event sponsorship dollars are being stretched across all of these high profile events
4. Our promotional window has been tightened thus giving us less time to drive the crowd we are used to hosting
Tightening promotional windows can be a real bear. But No. 3, seems to me, comes closest to telling the story. They don’t do MystiQal out of the goodness of their hearts. They do it to make money. If there aren’t enough sponsorships to support it, then the bon temps won’t rouler. Here’s hoping 2011 is fatter.
