| Feint* | 06-02-2008 07:05 PM |
early bird gets the worm! Quote:
Are you sure that is happening this year?
New group makes bid to host night market
By Martin van den Hemel - Richmond Review - March 22, 2008
Imagine his surprise when Richmond Night Market organizer Raymond Cheung saw an ad in a Chinese daily newspaper stating that the annual waterfront event is going ahead, even though he still hasn’t found a spot to put it.
It turns out, another firm which says it has previously organized events at the Plaza of Nations in downtown Vancouver, has stepped in and made an application this week to the city to host the market at the same Vulcan Way site as last year.
This week’s ad in the Chinese daily Ming Pao Xpress claims that the “2008 Richmond Summer Night Market” is going ahead this year. The ad urges vendors to sign up for the market, billed with a May 30 start date, and declares vendors must give their full payment by mid-April.
But City of Richmond spokesperson Cynthia Lockrey said no approval has been given by the city for the night market. In order to go ahead, the new proponents, which this year started a new company called Lions Communications, will have to obtain a temporary use permit and fulfill a raft of requirements.
Lions Communications’ Paul Cheung—who is not related to Raymond Cheung—said he’s confident that the city would green light his bid.
Cheung said he was previously with Paradise Entertainment, the management company that organized events at Plaza of Nations.
“It looks pretty good so we’re going ahead,” Cheung said. Some vendors have already signed up and handed in their deposit, he said.
Cheung claimed he’s met the majority of the city’s requirements.
He said he’s also consulted with area businesses and has contacted the police, fire and health departments on traffic, safety and health issues.
“The staff already wrote the report,” Cheung claimed.
But Lockrey said that’s not true.
She said a letter has been sent to Cheung, indicating all of the areas that need to be addressed and information that’s still outstanding.
“We thought it would be a big loss to the City of Richmond, to not have it,” Cheung said.
He began working on this project with fellow organizers Allen Ng, Frank Liu and Alvin Au.
He said he’s already signed a lease with the Vulcan Way landlord, Cathay Importers Ltd. 2000.
Once staff have completed a report, it will be presented to a committee of council, which will review it and then decide on whether it wants to recommend the bid’s approval.
That recommendation will be forward to city council.
Before making a decision, council must hold a public hearing in which interested citizens and business owners can share their views.
Lockrey said the city is treating this application as completely new, and noted that even if the original organizer, Raymond Cheung, wanted to hold the event again, he’d have to start the application process from scratch, just like Paul Cheung.
Meanwhile, Raymond Cheung said his firm, Target Event Productions, has received calls from surrounding businesses, who expressed surprise and anger at news that the event might return.
That leads him to question whether area businesses have been consulted at all, as Paul Cheung claims.
And Raymond Cheung also fears the public will confuse the two events because the event names are so similar—Raymond’s Richmond Night Market versus Paul’s Richmond Summer Night Market—and residents will have the same expectations in terms of security, parking and traffic.
Last year’s event drew about 30,000 people per night to the north Richmond area near Home Depot and IKEA.
Raymond Cheung said he couldn’t negotiate a lease with his old landlord and hasn’t been able to find a new location. But he’s hopeful the Richmond Night Market will return next year.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/richm ... /news/16983231.html
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