Chamber president recaps Bluegrass & Chili Fest

By Tom Fink The Claremore Daily Progress Thu Nov 05, 2009, 11:13 AM CST

November 5, 2009 — In an economy still feeling the effects of a recession, breaking even is the next best thing to not losing money, and that’s just how the Bluegrass and Chili Festival fared, Claremore Chamber of Commerce President Dell Davis told members of the Claremore City Council.

“Basically, this was pretty much a ‘break even’ year for us with the Bluegrass and Chili Fest,” Davis said earlier this week. “With the economy still in recovery, our budgeted costs and actual-to-date costs were dead even. Even so, we fared much better than other communities who host annual events that had to be downsized or even canceled because of the economy.”

Total budgeted costs for the three-day event — including promotion, food vendors, performance artists, sound and light, and more — was $172,270, with to-date costs totaling $169,695.80.

“There were some areas which cost us more than we’d budgeted for — the (performance) artists wound up costing us $54,550, which was $3,000 more than we’d budgeted for, but that’s not bad, considering we had three days and night’s worth of entertainment,” she said. “So, really, that’s not too out of line with what we were anticipating.”

One particular area which was higher than in previous years was in beverage expenses.

“As the (Claremore) Expo (Center) has a contract with Coca-Cola, we switched from Pepsi to Coke this year, and we didn’t get nearly what we had in the past in terms of service and beverages, but that’s the way it went, I’m afraid,” she said.

Davis was pleased to report an increase in hotel-motel taxes during the month of September, when the Bluegrass & Chili Festival was held.

“Hotel-Motel Tax collections during September were at $7,862.62 — up from $6,954.26 the previous year, and preceding years,” she said. “Of course, we can’t take credit for this entire amount, but I think it’s fair to say that the festival was a major factor as, during the three days it was held, our hotels and motels were full. We were having to send people to Owasso, Catoosa, and Pryor for accommodations, so I don’t think there being no room at the inn during the Bluegrass & Chili Festival was just a coincidence.”

Davis touched on numerous other details of the festival, including volunteers (a total of 400), the age demographics of those who attended and the states they came from, and the importance of corporate sponsorship.

“More than $45,000 was raised (for the event), with at least $10,000 of in-kind (services),” she said. “This kind of family-free entertainment truly would not be possible without the corporate sponsors and volunteers.”

Additionally, Davis offered an estimation of the overall economic impact of the event.

“Keep in mind, this is just an estimate, but we used the formula from Doug Hawthorne of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Commerce to give us the estimate,” she said. “With at least 50 percent of the people who attended the event being from out of town (which contributed to revenue from lodging, food, transportation, retail and other expenditures), the festival would have had a direct (economic) impact of more than $176,000.”

Overall, Davis said she anticipated a budget carryover of roughly $7,600 which she expected to go towards next year’s Bluegrass & Chili Festival, contingent on the council’s decision at their next regular meeting.

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