By Katie Farrell
NEWBURYPORT — For nearly two decades, the annual Buskers Festival downtown on Labor Day weekend has been one of the city's biggest draws.
The festival invites street performers from contortionists to jugglers to magicians set up in Market Square to entertain hundreds of onlookers.
Problem was, said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ann Ormond, those eyes were fixed on the entertainers and not the shops and restaurants the chamber hopes will benefit from the event.
"It's our feeling that there was not a lot of shopping going on that weekend," Ormond said.
For that reason, the chamber will not hold the event for the first time since 1990 and instead focus its efforts on new opportunities, like the visit by the Friendship in August.
With a struggling economy, the chamber must reinvent itself and try new and innovative ways to bring people into the city and into the stores to help businesses through tougher times, Ormond said.
Some preliminary ideas that have been discussed include organizing a "girls night out" shopping event, sidewalk sales on the waterfront or an outdoor film series, she said.
The chamber will continue to sponsor its other festivals — Spring Fest on Memorial Day weekend, the Riverfront Festival in July and the Fall Harvest Festival on Columbus Day Weekend.
With the Friendship arriving in Newburyport in mid-August and expected to draw thousands of people, it will take significant planning and work, making hosting the Buskers Festival just weeks later difficult, Ormond said.
The Chamber of Commerce is working with the city on numerous other tourism initiatives over the coming year as a way to help boost business, including creating a shuttle from the commuter rail into downtown, the Tannery and Plum Island.
"To do just the same old, same old, we will do ourselves a disservice," Ormond said.
