Fetish Fair FleamarketTM: Change of Dates and venue.

[jbsegal]

Please spread this news.

The Fetish Fair Fleamarket^TM has a new home!

Starting this summer, the Fetish Fair Fleamarket^TM is moving from the Park Plaza hotel to the Sheraton Boston. Political fallout from a negative Boston Globe column which criticized the Park Plaza for hosting our event last year has made one of the co-owners of that property, The Donald Saunders Company, inhospitable to us.
The other part of the ownership and management of the Park Plaza Hotel, though, the national chain known as Starwood (which includes Sheraton and Westin), loves us, values our business and wants us very much to remain their client.
They have offered their premier convention property, the Sheraton Boston, as our new
location for both the summer and winter FFFs, and we will make the move starting in August 2004.

The new dates for the upcoming events are:

Summer: Saturday August 7, 2004
Winter: December 17-19, 2004
following year winter: December 16-18, 2005

New location:
Sheraton Boston Hotel
39 Dalton Street
Boston, MA 02199

To reserve your room at our discounted rates, call 1-800-325-3535 and ask for the Fetish Fair Fleamarket^TM rate. Soon we will be able to link directly to the hotel's reservations web site as well.

For more information on the hotel, visit http://www.sheraton.com/boston

NELA's web pages are at http://www.nla-newengland.org/

Comments

[ladytabitha.livejournal.com]

Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally.  I wonder what Saunders had to say about that?

< ex BPPH employee

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Somehow I thought you'd be interested by this...:)

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Verrry eeenteresting.

*thoughtful frown* I wonder if Arisia is considering a similar move.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Arisia is also well-loved by the Park Plaza. They are just outgrowing the space.

[mangosteen]

So, is there any pointer to the article from the Glob? I'd be most interested in seeing what it said.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Brian McGrory, Jan 20, 2004: "They Had Reservations"

If anyone wants to dig it out - subscribers to the Glob get free archive access I think - and post it here...that'd be lovely.

(It's worth noting that McGrory wasn't even there. He reported pure hearsay.)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

It might not be available anymore, since it was published a few months ago. It wasn't so much a news article as a column, and I think the writer was Brian McGrory. He was a dick. It was basically all "but what about the CHILDREN and all RIGHT-THINKING PEOPLE??????" Oh, and "NO FAT CHICKS." Asshole.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

(See my latest post. Just found it.)

[coraline]

well, right-on for starwood, and for not letting saunders convince them that we're bad for business.

glad that that article didn't mean "everybody will hate FFF and there will be no good convention center for it"...

[tisiphone.livejournal.com]

As annoying as I find this, it might not be a bad thing. The management and hospitality of the Park Plaza has definitely gone downhill in the last few years, particularly in the attitude towards convention attendees (at least so far as I've seen.)

[ksteppe.livejournal.com]

Annoying reason, but really sounds like a good thing for the Flea. You're getting better (or at least higher classed) space, and one week before xmas is impressive time for them to give, hopefully pre-holidays is good for flea business.

So, congratulations, even if the catalyst was a pain.

[lionofgod.livejournal.com]

I must say, my biggest problem with this (other than the nastiness of why it happened) is the time changes. The old January time was in a reasonably dead zone in the social calendar, while late december cuts into the assorted familial obligation
travel time. And I suspect that I can't quite justify going shopping for Christmas presents there. ;)

Of course, there's probably a more effective place to mention this, but I'm liable to forget later, and I draw the line at visiting the NELA page at work.