• Local businesses set up booths during Muncie Gras.
• Business owners say it doesn’t necessarily help business.
• Many say tradition brought them to the event.
Although several hundred people funneled onto Walnut Street during Saturday night for a New Orleans-style party, it didn’t necessarily mean an abundance of new customers for the businesses on the street.
As people took part in the plentiful booze and music or watched the drag and male revues, some local business owners had to find a different way to make a profit.
Around 15 business had booths set up for attendees to browse.
Brandon Mundell, owner of Toys Forever Models & Hobbies, manned a booth outside his shop selling beads to passersby.
Mundell said Muncie Gras doesn’t really have a major impact on his business.
“It [Muncie Gras] doesn’t help or hurt us — it’s just a good party,” he said. “It’s not a big deal for us because people don’t usually come here [to the booth] and say, ‘I’m going to go to the hobby shop.’”
However, he did say people have come into his shop because they saw his booth at Muncie Gras.
Mundell also said he sets up his booth because he owns his business’ building and would have to be there to watch it during the high-energy event.
“We just want to make sure none of the windows, or anything, get broken,” he said.
Mundell’s fear of broken property has nothing to do with the event itself, just the several hundred people, he said.
“And since we are here, we decided to participate because it’s tradition and [to] also have a private party upstairs,” he said. “I mean we are here anyway — why not try to have a little fun?”
The 13-year-old event certainly has many traditions, ranging from the mechanical bull to the drag show, which also brought another local business owner down to Walnut street.
Tony Goodwin, an employee of Goodwin Family Products, said he just couldn’t stay away from the massive event, even if it doesn’t affect his business directly.
“It’s not really important to us because, at the end of the night and throughout the year, we’re still the same business,” he said.
But to Goodwin, there is still reason to come to the event.
“We come out here to serve food because it’s just a good show and tradition and that’s why people come,” he said.
James Garrett, an employee of Liberty Tax Service, passed out beads and offered a different view on the impact for business owners.
“It lets people blow off some steam, have a night free and let loose and possibly makes people more likely to come check out our business,” Garrett said.
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