LINCOLN SQUARE — At Maifest in Lincoln Square, beer drinkers usually plow through a keg every three minutes.
During Saturday's wet and rainy festival, that pace dropped off significantly — about one keg every 7 minutes.
Not far away at Wicker Park's Do Division fest, Saturday "was a complete" bust, organizers said.
But despite the lousy weather in the 50s, the early-season festivals soldiered on, with Do Division anticipating making enough money to still donate to the groups it support. For one key participant at MaiFest, there's a fire sale on leftover sausage.
If you were not among the tens of thousands of revelers predicted to enjoy Do Division Fest — considered to be the kickoff to the 2015 summer fest season — you are not alone.
"We had a slow start but a great finish. Saturday was a complete bust with freezing cold winds and rain all day," Kara Salgado, executive director of the West Two Chamber of Commerce, on Monday morning.
Alisa Hauser says organizers will still be able to make donations:
The chamber puts on the annual Do Division Fest that under better circumstances and weather has brought 70,000 folks to Wicker Park's Division Street.
On Monday, Salgado said, "Friday and Sunday went surprisingly well," though the weather was the worst she said she's ever experienced at any summer event.
Salgado has produced dozen of festivals, beginning with West Fest in 2004.
When asked if the 3-day event lost profits, Salgado said the event got enough sponsors, vendors and "die hard fan patrons" to still be considered a success.
"Exact numbers aren't in yet but it won't lose money," Salgado said, adding that Sunday was "surprisingly solid all day and great considering the cold."
Within the coming weeks, once all sponsor fees are collected and budget reports finalized, the chamber will announce donation amounts to the fest's nonprofit beneficiaries: A.N. Pritzker School, 2009 W. Schiller St., LaSalle II School, 1148 N. Honore St., and Talcott Fine Art & Museum Academy, 1840 W. Ohio St.
For Division Street business owners, the crowds, albeit smaller than predicted, were still a boon.
"Friday night we were very busy; it was not what we hoped for on Saturday, and Sunday we did pretty well. It was our first Do Division and we had been looking forward to it," said Joe Boumaroun, co-owner of Barley and Brass, which opened about six months ago at 2015 W. Division St.
Salgado said a "nice feel good community moment" came when staffers from Rainbo Club, steps from the main entry at Damen Avenue and Division Street, delivered scarves and hats from the iconic bar's lost and found box to try keep the workers warm.
Bruce Lamont, a bar manager that coordinated the Do Division Fest drink vendors, sent Salgado a short video clip of workers dancing in the cold.
In Lincoln Square meanwhile, the weekend's cold and rainy weather also put a major damper on Maifest.
"Our worst year ever was 2013, and this was even worse than that," said Nicolle Dombrowski, executive director of DANK Haus, one of the beneficiaries of the fest's beer and food sale proceeds.
Though attendance perked up Sunday, Saturday's crowd was a fraction of what the fest typically draws.
"Normally on a Saturday, we change a keg every three minutes," Dombrowski said. "We did seven kegs in an hour."
The poor showing at Maifest places a significant dent in DANK's budget, she said, with the fest usually contributing 12 to 15 percent of the organization's bottom line.
"It's a wake-up call for diversifying our fundraising," said Dombrowski.
To salvage what it can from the wet weekend, DANK plans to hold a food sale similar to 2013, with brats and other non-perishables available for purchase at a discount.
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