By Jeff Mack
Thank you to The Valley Reporter on behalf of Vermont Music Fest for your article about the fate of this year's festival, which, at this point, could be either a year off or a permanent shutdown. I am writing to add some additional context so that the community can better understand why the event is at risk.
While The Valley Reporter was correct to quote me saying that Vermont Music Fest was a great success, there are different types of success. From the standpoint of a daylong music celebration bringing together talented, exciting musicians, music lovers, families, friends and wiffle ball enthusiasts, Vermont Music Fest was undoubtedly a success. It was a beautiful success to witness the generosity of our sponsors and nearly 100 volunteers who gave their time, money and creativity.
And it was a resounding success to witness the many local food vendors, artists, service providers, puppeteers, lanteneers, fire twirlers, venue staff and the many, many behind-the-scenes organizers and businesses who helped pull the event together and make it such a vibrant celebration. For every one of you, I am eternally grateful and I can't thank you enough for your contribution to these many successes.
There is one key and sobering area where the festival did not succeed, however, and that is, of course, financially. Despite 4,200 attendees (700 more than anticipated – another success!) and the generosity of sponsors, we had substantial losses in 2014.
Lessons to be learned abound from the 2014 event. I was probably naive to think that just because we broke even the previous years, that we would again, even as I added last-minute items to the budget to make the event bigger and brighter. I assumed the large crowds we'd anticipated would translate to correspondingly large donations that would cover our costs, but they simply didn't.
In hindsight, 2014, being what I called my final "beta year," was probably the year we should have experimented with charging admission. In hindsight, this would have held back the growth a little and, in turn, prevented our needing some last-minute costly extras to accommodate the numbers. The "in hindsight" list could go on and on – I'm sure many people have some of their own to add. But all decisions were made in good faith, and I know and fully accept that sometimes things don't pan out the way you plan or hope.
I wanted to write this letter so that people understand that if Vermont Music Fest doesn't happen this year, it's not just because I don't feel like doing it anymore (even though I did promise my wife that five years would be enough for me to put together systems and pass it off to another manager or managing team).
I love this community and Vermont Music Fest was my way of showing it. But I simply cannot shoulder the financial and organizational risk of putting it on another year. I'm sure there are many ways to easily organize the event that could prevent a repeat of the losses we saw this year and, as has been written, I'd love someone to take the reins and bring this festival together. But given 2014's losses, I think it's best to take this next year off to regroup, reorganize and hopefully build the framework for a successful future endeavor.
During this time, please stay engaged – go to the website, Pinterest, Facebook, to share ideas for future events, get involved and continue the conversation. We'd love to hear from you.
Jeff Mack is the founder of Vermont Music Fest.
