Changes may be coming to the Belleville Waterfront Multicultural Festival as Belleville council receives an event management report at its meeting Monday.
In a report to council, Manager of Economic Development Elisha Maguire says city staff met with event stakeholders as well as community members to gauge interest in transitioning the organization of the event to an organization other than the Chamber of Commerce which has been managing the event but is not interested in continuing with special events management for the city.
During discussions with stakeholders, city staff learned that the event was stale and needed to be reinvented and that the event has seen a decline, including ticket sales for the midway.
Based on this feedback and timing, staff are recommending that the Multicultural Waterfront Festival in its current form be dissolved.
While staff say the festival as a free community event is not an economically viable business, they have received interest in expanding the festival to include ticketed elements.
Meanwhile, since the chamber also managed Canada Day, the Santa Claus Parade, and Family Funfest events for the city, staff are also presenting council with options for their management.
See the entire staff report here.
Council’s meeting will take place at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon.
