Post-’Eid Gathering Fills Rock Financial Showplace

By Adil James, MMNS

Novi–November 29–Much better than last year.  That was the consensus after this year’s mass ‘Eid celebration at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi.

“It was packed all day,” said one vendor at the US Census booth, describing the events at the Rock Financial Showplace.  “People asked lots of intelligent questions,” she said, including many people who had worked for the 2000 census and wanted to do it again in 2010.

There were approximately ten different rides inside the Showplace, many bounce house style rides including slides, bounce houses, and even an imitation rock climbing wall over which children climbed to go down a slide on the other side.

There were many carnival rides, including go-carts and many different kinds of merry-go-rounds.

Mr. Muhammad Mohiuddin of CIOM explained that there were three main issues that the carnival planners emphasized after their first experience the previous year; first, they improved the layout of the ‘Eid celebration by pushing more vendors to the front entrance and eating area, so that crowds had to filter through the vendors on their way to the rides.  Second, there were more things for adults to do.  Third, last year there had not been enough publicity so this year the event planners made a bigger effort to reach out to everyone in Southeast Michigan.

The music from last year, he explained, had not worked very well, in part because the sound of it was so overwhelming in a closed space, and so this year there were no bands and in fact this change also improved the layout of the Rock Showplace.

Vendors almost universally said that this year’s ‘Eid carnival was much better than the previous year.  I talked to five vendors and while they did not all disclose how much money they had made they all seemed as though they had at least broken even on the day’s events.  Renting a booth at this year’s ‘Eid carnival cost about $150, which is in fact a reasonable price.

Many of the vendors had been at the previous year’s carnival as well, and most agreed that this year had been better.

Dr. Alam S. Syed sold sunnah health products including honey and black seed, and looked satisfied with they day’s receipts although he said “they should reduce the price” for vendors.

Mr. Brandon Metzger of Toner Solutions sold sunnah bathroom products and had sold about 20 units through the day, each for $50.  These units are portable plastic bidets with sprayers that extend when water is coming out–they can be attached to any toilet in just a few minutes.

Muhamed Halilovic, an artist from the Canton community, sold very reasonably priced calligraphy and paintings of mosques in his native Bosnia.  He was somewhat disappointed in his business for the day but perhaps next year will be better than this year.

An estimated 6,000 people attended this year’s ‘Eid carnival at the Rock Financial Showplace.

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