Planned Neepawa summer festival cancelled
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- Published on Thursday, April 16, 2015
By Kate Jackman-Atkinson
The Neepawa Banner
On April 15, the committee organizing Neepawa鈥檚 new summer festival, the Land of Plenty Celebration, announced that there will be no event in 2015. The group had planned to organize an event on what had been Lily Festival weekend after the dissolution of the Lily Festival board last year.
In a brief press release, the group said, 鈥淭he Land of Plenty Celebration committee has chosen to abandon plans for this summer鈥檚 event. The small committee rallied around the important social and economic advantages of a summer event to showcase Neepawa.鈥�
Plans for the new, non-Lily themed festival began last December and the committee planned to stage the event on the weekend of July 25-26. It would appear that a lack of financial support led to the cancellation. In their release, the committee said, 鈥淭here was insufficient time to not only begin a new festival from the ground up but establish a sponsorship plan as well. This left little time to access funding beyond the Town of Neepawa grant, which was insufficient to cover projected budget costs. Many programs require at least one year鈥檚 financial statements in order to be eligible for other grants.鈥�
The Committee asked not to be contacted for further comment.
Committee Sheri Grant said, 鈥淚t is unfortunate that the community will not have the Land of Plenty Celebration in 2015. An event of this size is dependent on funding and volunteers to create the kind of memorable experience associated with the Lily Festival for the last 18 years. We would like to thank those who had already committed to participate in this year鈥檚 Land of Plenty Celebration.鈥�
Former Lily Festival chair Brent Hunter was sad to see that there won鈥檛 be a summer festival this year in Neepawa. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 too bad something isn鈥檛 going to happen, it鈥檚 an economic blow to the community,鈥� he said. He was hopeful that the town might see a festival in 2016, when organizers have more time to put something together. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 happen overnight,鈥� he said.
