Town council is struggling with the decision to sponsor Rib Fest event in Fort Frances after it led to a cancellation from Burger Wars.
Last year, the Town of Fort Frances was approached by a consortium of cross-Canada touring rib trucks inquiring about interest in holding a rib festival locally. There was only one weekend the rib vendors had available in their schedule, which clashed with Burger Wars, who had booked theirs the weekend before. The back-to-back weekends of food festivals in the same place led to worries of how successful either would be, causing Burger Wars to back out. Last year, Burger Wars was a successful event with local vendors from town and the surrounding areas having great sales and the overall weekend being met with positive response.
With Burger Wars backing out, town council debated whether or not to move forward in sponsoring Rib Fest with $15,000 plus an additional $5,000 contingency allowance or let this event go. A first year of event comes with risks of attendance levels and how profitable it will be when actually put to the test.
“I’m struggling with this a little bit because of how well the Burger Wars did last year,” Coun. Bill Morrison said.
“I had a phone call from one of the Burger Wars organizers today, and they were a little upset about the whole thing, just because it was so close. They said the biggest problem for them it was a draw to volunteers. It’s hard enough to get volunteers already. Last year they were doing a lot of tables and stuff to set up themselves. It’s a tough time for everybody, and they’re just disappointed because they’d like to make a go of it and they tried changing the date as well but they just weren’t able to make a go of it on a different date.”
Other councillors had some difficulty with the decision to move forward with a rib festival as well.
“I love the idea of the Rib Fest, I think it’s fantastic,” Coun. John McTaggart said.
“My concern is that we’ve lost Burger Wars this year, so we have a net zero out of it. We stopped something that was very successful last year from repeating again this year and brought in Rib Fest.”
With the back and forth of the success of Burger Wars and the risks of a new event, Mayor Andrew Hallikas brought up the possibility of getting Burger Wars back if they were to decide against Rib Fest.
“Is it possible to get Burger Wars back on, or is that now off the table till next year?” Hallikas asked.
“It would be really unfortunate to not support Rib Fest and then not have Burger Wars either. I’m a huge supporter of festivals, and I think the more festivals we have, the better.”
This question ultimately caused the debate to be tabled to the next town council meeting so that they had time to learn if Burger Wars would be open to returning if the town opted out of Rib Fest.
The discussion of what happens next in the Rib Fest – Burger Wars debate is expected to resume during the April 27 council meeting, where councillors can make a decision while being more aware of potential outcomes.
