Tips for populating my empty festivals and lots? Plus slow mermaids.

I use Shimrod's Townies Out on the Town myself, and it works great. Any time my sim goes to any community lot, there will soon be at least three or four other sims visiting the lot too, and even more the longer she stays, except for the festival lot in Isla Pardiso. For some reason they all avoid it like the plague, except for an occasional service sim.