After two years of canceled or pared down events, the summer of 2022 looked like it had the potential to be a care-free season filled with festivals, events and social gatherings galore.
And although pandemic restrictions have been lifted in most places, allowing large scale events and attractions to open at full capacity, there’s a hitch – it’s going to cost a lot.
A mass labor shortage has made finding people to work those events difficult and expensive. And the rising costs of just about everything needed to operate them means the summer of freedom and fun is coming with a steep price tag, but it’s one a lot of people are still willing to pay.
Budgets for festivals have increased this summer and organizers are scrambling to find ways to avoid passing on that extra expense.
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When less costs more
Knoebels Amusement Park is a family-owned park in Pennsylvania that has been operating since 1926. It’s also the country’s largest, free-admission park.
Stacy Yutko, Knoebels’ public relations director, and her team knew they would need a creative plan this summer if they were going to keep things running.
To deal with the labor shortage, they went to job fairs and local schools to recruit.
And they’re giving a lot of perks to employees. Along with park discounts, they also offer a bus service to get to work and get back home, bonuses for anyone working more than 30 hours a week and a scholarship program for school-aged workers.
Yutko says that creativity has paid off, even if it’s still not quite the pre pandemic experience returning visitors would be used to.
The park has decreased its hours and some of the rides that require more staff to operate aren’t running.
Yutko says the workarounds are working, but it’s coming at a cost – the park is paying $1.5 million more this summer in wage increases alone.
“When we raise prices here at the park, it's certainly in direct relation to an increase in the cost of doing business,” she says.
That price hikes doesn’t seem to have impacted attendance at the park, says Yutko, which already this season is at similar levels to last year.
For now, people seem to have accepted the higher costs all around this summer. In May, U.S. retail and food services sales were still 8.1% above May 2021.
Familiar woes: Labor shortages, inflation, supply chain issues
It’s been widely reported that mass labor shortages are affecting everything from swimming pools to festivals. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the hospitality and food service sectors have struggled to keep consistent workers during the pandemic reshuffling.