Renaissance Refusal

Monday, 7 April 2014 06:19

There will be a lot less help from the City of Woodstock for a county festival later this spring.

WOODSTOCK -- Organizers of the Oxford Renaissance Festival were again at Woodstock City Council lastweek to hear a decision on their in-kind request for services for this year's event.

Festival Organizer Greg Schuurman originally asked council last month for in-kind signage, bus advertisements, ads in Woodstock Magazine, picnic table delivery and an approved shuttle-bus to the venue.

Councillor Sandra Talbot says the city gets asked for in-kind services all time, and opening the door to one for-profit, no matter how successful, would set a difficult precedent for the city to live up to going forward.

"The event from every account I've heard was very successful, a great event, we were glad to have it in the community, but we have to treat everyone the same."

Council decided to amend its conditions for organizers of the Oxford Renaissance Festival and their request for in-kind services. Council decided to offer an exemption to the sign by-law to allow signs for the Renaissance Fest to be placed near city entrance signs for up to one month.

Councillor Talbot says council was looking for financials from the 2013 edition of the festival -- which council granted money for in its first year.

"Well, we like to see the financials from the event that passed. We see that their ask is legitimate to the sense that maybe their budget was tight, but we gave them $10,000 last year to do the event."

Last month, Organizer Greg Schuurman told Heart FM about last year's event breaking even, which he said at the March 21 meeting, "Had a lot to do with the advertising grant the city gave the festival."

Schuurman says he is extremely disappointed as he wasn't asking for money but in-kind support.

"They are not even giving me picnic tables this year which I find is just absolutely ridiculous so basically the city is not supporting the festival at all and I feel frustrated."

Schuurman says not a single councillor attended the festival last year.

He says while he really appreciated the money he was granted last year, he felt council should have been more open to his in-kind ask. He says last year he did exactly as council had asked when it came to the grant money.

"I provided those receipts, they saw that I used that for advertising and I did exactly what they had asked. Basically attracting tourism from outside of 40km city limits and that's exactly what I did. We had over 70 percent come from outside of Oxford County."

Schuurman says he feels the City isn't supporting the festival which brings in thousands of tourism dollars and while he would love to keep the festival in Oxford County, he has had offers from other municipalities to move it.

"If push comes to shove and I'm constantly fighting against the township or the city itself, then ya, absolutely I will move. I will move before it's too late because the thing is, as the festival grows, you only want to move once."

Schuurman says Milton is one of the Citys interested in the festival.

The Oxford Renaissance Festival is scheduled to run June 13th-to-15th at the Woodstock Fairgrounds.