The Morinville Festival Society is not organizing this year’s Festival Days because town administration “bullied” them out of their own event, says the society’s president.
The festival society has organized Morinville’s Festival Days (formerly the St. Jean Baptiste Day Festival) since 2010.
That’s changed as of this year. Town officials have confirmed to the Gazette that this year’s event is being run entirely by the Town of Morinville.
When asked why the society was not taking part, town events and cultural programmer Kathleen Ducharme said, “They just opted not to this year.”
In a letter sent to Morinville media, society president Korien Sampson said the group was not hosting the event “due to numerous commitments” but looked forward to working with the town next year.
In an interview, though, Sampson said while group members did have other commitments, the real reason they weren’t taking part in Festival Days was because the town had forced them out.
“It is our opinion that the town decided they could do (the event) better and cheaper,” she said, and used administrative decisions to make it untenable for the society to keep running it.
“They bullied us out of our own event.”
It’s a fight over money
Sampson and Mayor Barry Turner said this dispute between the town and the festival society goes back several years and revolves around money.
The town gives the festival society considerable support to run Festival Days, Turner said – $11,000 in cash this year plus about $30,000 in-kind. In recent years, councils have wanted more detailed accounting of how that support was used – Turner used the Morinville Historical & Cultural Society’s to-the-penny expense reports as an example of what council wanted – and the festival society has not provided that information.
“This is a hard one. We want to encourage our community groups to participate in (the festival) ... but at the same time that accountability has got to be there,” Turner said.
Sampson said the town was not the festival’s only sponsor and had asked for financial reports over and above what other sponsors requested.
Sampson said the society started fencing the festival grounds and charging admission in 2016 in response to council’s repeated calls for the festival to become self-sufficient.
Those fences became a problem last year because the Edmonton Garrison had various displays planned at the festival and would only participate if those displays were open to everyone, Turner said.
Sampson said town administration told them they could not fence the grounds in around April 2018.
“Without the fencing, our entire five-year plan went down the drain,” she said, as it meant the group would not have money to pay down debts, plan ahead or host many of the event’s activities.
“In our point of view, town administration made it impossible for the festival society to continue to host this event.”
While the society had already organized most of the 2018 event at that point, Sampson said the group decided to just host the beer gardens and let the town run the rest.
Sampson said the society did not receive any notice or invitation to participate in this year’s Festival Days.
Permanent rift?
The festival society spoke to the town on these and other issues at a committee of the whole meeting last September, Turner said. Council asked to set up a meeting to resolve this conflict, but the society has yet to agree to one.
“I’m not sure they’re even at the table,” Turner said.
Turner disagreed with Sampson’s position that the town had “bullied” the group, and hoped the society would agree to meet on this issue.
Sampson said she personally wanted to hold such a meeting but could not do so after consulting with the rest of the society.
“They said they would not work with this administration because of the way we were treated.”
Sampson said the society hoped to organize other events in 2020 now that the town has taken over Festival Days.
