RACINE — Downtown Racine's Party on the Pavement, a free, one-day festival that has taken place for more than two decades, is facing pushback from vendors ahead of this year's event over an increase in participation fees.
Food and craft vendor fees have doubled from last year's prices.
This year, food vendors will pay $600 to participate compared to $300 last year, and craft vendors will pay $250 compared to $125.
Commercial vendors will pay $450, compared to $300, and nonprofits will pay $250 instead of $150.
Fees for downtown businesses looking to have a booth outside of their brick-and-mortar locations remain the same as they were in 2025.
Jose Perez, owner of Spaceman Burgers and Big City BBQ in Racine, is among the vendors who won't be returning this year because of the cost.
"Your whole purpose is to gather as many people down there for one day to be celebrated, but I feel like one day, $600, is ridiculous," Perez said.
For Perez, the cost of participating also includes the cost of food and employees.
"It's not feasible anymore," he said.
Perez, who has participated in the festival in years past, tagged TMJ4 in a Facebook post announcing he would not be returning this year.
"There's a lot of small businesses that want to participate in this event, but sometimes it's not feasible for them," Perez said.
The Downtown Racine Corporation, which organizes the event, released a statement Wednesday saying the fee increase addresses rising costs of entertainment, insurance and operations. The DRC also said the change is rooted in the event's origins.
Party on the Pavement began in 2004 as an opportunity to support and celebrate downtown businesses following a lengthy construction project on Main Street.
Kelly Kruse, DRC executive director, said the event has grown every year, with an average of 15,000 visitors expected to attend. She said with growth comes more vendors applying, and in 2025, there was no cap on vendors.
"Last year, it was a very big event. We had too many vendors, and a lot of merchants were not happy with that. Because why we started this was so we could focus on our business and advertise our business and have outside business too," said Dimple Navratil, a longtime downtown business owner and DRC board member.
The DRC said the new pricing structure "allows the event to remain open to all interested vendors without requiring a subjective selection process, while helping ensure the event continues to highlight the businesses that call downtown home."
Navratil said she supports the decision.
"It was the merchants that took the survey last year, and most of them came out saying that we should focus more toward the existing businesses that are here," Navratil said.
Not everyone is sitting out, however. Entrepreneurs Yolonda "Yogi" Blair and Tre Edwards are hosting an alternative event the same weekend called "Motion on Mead," after being priced out from showcasing a new business venture at Party on the Pavement this year.
"We might as well go ahead and create something so nobody don't have to pay these fees," Blair said.
Blair described Party on the Pavement as "something that everybody comes to, enjoys coming to."
"We love it," she said. "You see so many people that you haven't seen in a while. You get to taste all these great, different things. The kids have somewhere to play."
The two say the new event is not about competing with Party on the Pavement, but simply providing another opportunity.
"I just hope that party on the pavement can still be successful, and whatever vendors decide to come out, that they have success as well," Edwards said. "And maybe one day Motion on Mead can reach the success that Party on the Pavement has."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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