Area festivals still star attractions in summer
By CRYSTAL LINDELL
During the next few months, Ferris wheels will start dotting the landscape and the smell of cotton candy and hot dogs will travel with the wind.
The quintessential summertime festival might be old-fashioned, but organizers say that even the recent economic slump hasn’t deterred them.
In fact, some are even hopeful their events will expand this year.
“We’re seeing a tremendous amount of interest,” said Jan Kostner, state travel director for the Illinois Office of Tourism. “I think you’re going to see an uptick in more attendance.”
Locally, Harvard Milk Days, slated for next weekend, long has been seen as the traditional kickoff to festival season.
Mike Bannwolf, secretary of the board of directors for the event, said Milk Days typically costs in excess of $200,000 to put on. It’s funded like many other local festivals – a combination of corporate sponsorships, event-related fees such as parking, vendors, and donations from community groups.
However, although the festival has partnerships with the city for things such as land use and police assistance, they get no money from them.
“We get zero funding from the [city],” Bannwolf said. “I think there’s some people that kind of just make assumptions [we do] because it’s called ‘Harvard Milk Days.’”
Kevin Myers, president of Algonquin Founders’ Days Festival, said his event typically costs about $150,000 to put on.
Organizers usually make a modest profit, which either is set aside for next year or donated.
Like Milk Days, it’s funded entirely separately from the village, but organizers also have partnerships in place.
“We like to be independent,” Myers said.
Founders’ Days biggest funding source, corporate sponsorships, has been hit hard by the economy. They’re expected to be down about 20 percent this year, and they were down 20 percent the year before that.
“It’s difficult for businesses to find that excess cash,” Myers said.
By contrast, Bannwolf said corporate sponsorships, also a big funding source for Milk Days, had stayed steady for his event.
“The business community sees the need,” he said. “Milk Days, in return, looks for sponsorships in a lot of different ways.”
Kostner said it was wise for the community to support the various festivals because they tended to bring in peripheral revenue to shops and lodging in the town.
“It’s broader than just the festival itself,” she said.
Luckily for many festivals, the economic downturn led to higher attendance rates.
In fact, Terry Legare, Lakeside Legacy Foundation’s executive director, said her organization was adding an extra day onto the Lakeside Festival, slated for the first week of July in Crystal Lake.
Myers also said he expected higher attendance at Founders’ Days this year.
Kostner said it likely was because more people were looking for activities close to home, and the festivals fit the bill.
“They’re easy,” she said. “They’re affordable.”
On the expenses side of the budget, Myers said, Founders’ Days organizers pour most of the money into entertainment. Despite the recession, he said there were no plans to scale things back.
“Over the last 15 years, we have continually reinvested ... [so] if we have a couple off years, we can still absorb it,” he said. “It’s the wrong mentality to say, ‘We’re going to cut back off the entertainment or the fireworks,’ because then you’re in a death spiral.”
Kostner agreed, and said most festival organizers still thriving during the recession understand that they had to be committed over the long term.
“When you don’t do something, it’s hard to bring a festival back, or bring that extra day back,” she said.
“A lot of these festivals are able to be in year in and year out because ... they’re able to continue to offer something.”
