Mattawa Voyageur Days has for years provided some big name acts, but that looks unlikely next summer as the town seeks to cut its losses.
For 17 years the festival prospered, but the last two years saw wristband sales decline and deficits climb.
See: Voyageur Days on the ropes?
Some blamed the economy while others said increased competition from other festivals played a major role.
"Everybody is imitating what we started back in 1998," Mattawa Mayor Dean Backer told BayToday. "At the end of the day, how do you compete with Boots and Hearts, BluesFest, Havelock, and you look at Timmins, an eight-day festival with a 3.5 million dollar budget, it's going to be very difficult to put on festivals of that magnitude."
But Backer still believes the town can put on a nice family oriented event that not only locals will enjoy but will bring outsiders to Mattawa.
"I can almost guarantee you we will not make an investment like we've done in the past in terms of entertainment. That's not going to happen because we've assured the people that we're not going to lose another dime. So we're going to take baby steps and start from roots up and work on this thing because the common theme is people don't want to see it gone, however, they don't want it to become a financial liability either."
A council committee will now take a look and see what can be done for next year's festival and whether it lasts one, two or three days.
"The people of Mattawa have got to invest in it," explained Backer. "They've got to believe in it because at one time 90 per cent of the people that purchased bracelets were from out of town. So we want to do grass roots with a very small budget and make it nice, quaint festival that not only locals will enjoy but also visitors to our town."
The festival was a hot ticket for 19 years, selling 7,000 (sellout) wristbands for eight consecutive years. By last year that had dropped to 3,500.
Jacques Begin is Mattawa's Director of Recreation, Tourism and Special Projects.
"The whole idea behind voyageur Days before was not just a regional festival but was an economic driver. Now council has to decide on whether they want this to continue as an economic driver or if they want it basically as a community festival. So that's the decision. The thing is you can't have both. It's either a big event or it's a local event. You can't really mix the two together. It's a big decision."
The town had been able to build up a reserve in the good years, but that got wiped out by recent festivals and Backer says he's not in favour of raising taxes.
"It was nice at one time and we were imitated by a lot of communities, but everybody seems to have a festival now and they've taken our blueprint", added Backer. "We were kind of humbled by it but it's kind of bitten us in the butt also."
Backer expects a decision will be announced at council's December 12th meeting.
