Letter to the Editor: Thoughts on Lansing Fish Days Weekend

To the Editor:

Lansing Fish Days has a long history of family fun and entertainment. This entertainment does not come cheap, as the volunteers and coordinators plan for the greater part of the year to get all of the permits, licenses and registrations complete in time for the second weekend in August.

Merely shooting off fireworks on the water resulted in piles and piles of paperwork and coordination with the Coast Guard. Many behind the scenes projects must be completed every year which very few people realize. To the Fish Days Committee and all of the volunteers who make their lives a little easier, thank you for a job well done.

In a few short months the committee will begin to plan for next year’s Fish Days to ensure that you and your family will have a great time. If you see a member of the committee around town, please thank them for all of their hard work.

I will now express my disdain to some of what I witnessed over Fish Days Weekend. In the past, the cost of a button/wristband to enjoy the festivities was $3. At that time parents had to pay a separate cost for their children to enjoy the bouncy houses and other activities. In recent years the price of a button/wristband has been raised to $5. This allows a cushion for the committee to provide all of the children’s activities (bouncy houses, face paint, henna tattoos, caricaturist, etc.) for free. This lowers the cost and burden for families to make the weekend more affordable and adheres to the mission of Fish Days: quality family entertainment.

To get to my point, the number of people who tried to sneak into the fest grounds without buying a button was appalling and the number of people who threw a fit about the cost of a button was unsettling. Never mind that most of those people have no problem forking over $3 for a beer. If $5 is too much for you to handle, you should probably stay home over the weekend to reassess your finances.

To those of you who accept  that admission costs drive our ability to have Fish Days at all, and who purchase your button in good spirits, thank you. To those who attempt to sneak past or who whine and complain, please consider that providing this level of entertainment is expensive, and that charging admission is the only way to ensure the continuation of the tradition that is Fish Days Weekend.

Jacob Galema
Lansing