The Tribeca Festival began as a revitalization project. It’s now a big moneymaker for New York.
The Tribeca Festival, which showcases the best films, audio and games, began last week in New York City. The annual festival was launched in the months following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to financially revitalize lower Manhattan and generally lift the city’s spirits. It’s now a 12-day experience — with over 600 events — and is a big moneymaker for New York.
The opening night gathering was held at Spring Studios, one of the festival’s main venues.
But Monica Von Thun Calderon isn’t part of the glitz and glamour. She’s the owner of Grandaisy Bakery, which is only steps away. When the festival starts, her sales go up.
“We get a little bump. It’s like maybe 5%. It’s nice because it’s definitely people present,” Von Thun Calderon said.
Grandaisy is one of the many nearby businesses that reap economic benefits from the Tribeca Festival every year, including this one. “This week, already today people are coming in for coffees and will start coming in for lunch,” Von Thun Calderon said.
Von Thun Calderon has been doing business in the neighborhood for roughly two decades, since around when the festival started. In Tribeca’s second year, it brought in $50 million for New York. A decade later, that had swelled to $750 million. It’s still expanding in scope: Now there’s everything from games to podcast tapings.
“We are no longer the Tribeca Film Festival. We are the Tribeca Festival because all types of content is storytelling. So we embrace it all,” said Peter Torres, the festival’s chief operating officer.
That means big business for a bunch of industries — ranging from the obvious, like TV and film, to food service operations like Grandaisy and its neighbors.
“For a neighborhood business, it’s like if you see it once, then you might come back. So that’s the other part of it. Even if you don’t go that moment or you don’t make it, the impact isn’t that day. The impact is over years and over time,” Von Thun Calderon said.
Tribeca’s financial successes go hand and hand with its original intent, which was to rebuild a community after tragedy. Von Thun Calderon said that’s exactly what happened.
“Creating a festival around this neighborhood at that time was a really great thing for the whole area,” she added.
The festival runs until June 16.