During 18 months of planning, [Jon Stevenson] said, he was able to persuade only six of the 700 corporations he contacted to become financial sponsors of the event. Such sponsorships were needed, he said, to provide the financial cushion necessary to cover expenses comfortably. "Until you become an established event you don't get sponsorship," Stevenson said.

Another problem was a last-minute misunderstanding with the city over available dates for the city-owned Rainbow Lagoon. Stevenson says he was told early on that the July dates were available. Jo Ann Burns, the city's director of special events, maintains that Stevenson was never told that, because the dates had already been reserved by the Ramada Renaissance Hotel for an employee picnic.

The much-touted opening of the Metro Blue Line on the same weekend, originally expected to help A Taste of Long Beach, ended up hurting, he said. Because the line was not yet open all the way to Ocean Boulevard near Rainbow Lagoon, Stevenson said, he had arranged for buses to transport people from the end of the line on Long Beach Boulevard to his event. But the light rail turnout was so great that the buses could barely move, he said. "People couldn't get down there even if they wanted to," Stevenson said. "The area was so congested that a lot of people who wanted to (attend) couldn't and just forgot about it."