When The Going Gets Tough…

This year has been a disaster for many events. The cost of gas is higher. The economy is poor and the weather hasn’t co-operated! How many festivals and events will fail this year? For their community’s sake, I hope not many, but that may be just wishful thinking. However, there is hope. Judi and I were visiting the Orono Fair last weekend and bumped into an old acquaintance, George Trotter. He is one of the long time organizers of the Cobourg Highland Games. The Cobourg Games, a one day event, was hit with one of the worst rainfalls of the year! The parade and many of their events had to be moved indoors or, worse, cancelled. Vendors left early and attendance, their life blood was down to catastrophic levels. As a result the Games lost a great deal of money! Many committees would have thrown it the towel, but not the Cobourg Highland Games. They have had a proud tradition for over 45 years. George told me that they were in the process of organizing fundraisers to recoup their losses and planned on coming back next year bigger and better! I believe with the help of the Cobourg community they will do just that! If festivals and events are going to survive in today’s economy, their organizers are going to have to get tough and get going! Their communities are counting on them!