Fall 2019

control of the weather or anything, so let’s see what happens. I remember
walking down to Convention Hall the day before the storm and
there was this mound of sand in front of the hall to protect it, I guess.
Went back the next day and the mound of sand was gone but Convention
Hall was untouched — so there you go... After the storm passed and
Cape May was still standing but the rest of Jersey wasn’t in good shape,
it was a question of, how can I get back in the black? I mean, really, how
the hell are we going to pay for this? We thought about cancelling but
that would have really sucked because Cape May needed the business.
And if you had been watching CNN, you were thinking Cape May was
no longer on the map. We couldn’t cancel. Sponsors stepped up big time
but it took a while to climb out of that hole.
In the years since, has the festival grown as you hoped it would?
Yep. Breaking even is a good thing. There are a lot of great ideas out
there, but ideas are a dime a dozen if you can’t execute the idea and
make it work. I’ve got a lot of respect for breaking even and moving on
exit zero 80 fall