Athabasca town councillor Joanne Peckham, council’s appointed representative to the Magnificent River Rats Festival Society, tabled a report critical of this year’s festival during last Tuesday’s town council meeting.
The report included her critique of this year’s festival — including the entertainment line-up, scheduling, ticket pricing and site set-up — as well as her ideas on how to increase revenue next year.
“It has been a very challenging year to have had my voice heard and having things being put into place that get removed,” stated Peckham’s report. “I have tried bringing top performers and personalities to create an audience in the thousands, and the potential to increase the paid participation in this community festival, to no avail.
“There has to be a strong plan in place and things have to change based on much more direction from this community,” the report also statescontinued. “The community is not ignorant and knows what they had, what they are getting now, and have stopped attending.”
It’s a report Peckham stands behind.
“I was put on (the society) for a vision; I was put on there for a reason,” Peckham said. “When I can get more people at a pancake breakfast, there's something wrong that needs to be analyzed.”
Peckham noted that she gave both chief administrative officer Josh Pyrcz and Mayor Roger Morrill a copy of her report prior to last Tuesday’s meeting and said neither had any problems with it.
During last Tuesday’s meeting, Peckham claimed that River Rats’ attendance was down 500 people this year by “doing it their way.”
“But, the committee was really happy that they had one person dancing in front of the stage at every act and they thought they made a great choice,” she continued.
Also during the meeting, Pyrcz stated he sent a letter to the society requesting information on the ticket sales, the number of performers, the children entertainment attendees and the gross profit and loss.
“I have requested information from them for the accurate numbers so when the budget deliberations do occur next year as per council direction, you'll have that information to review the value per dollar that you receive for your sponsorship,” he said.
There can be no decisions made, stated both Peckham and Pyrcz, before those numbers are received.
River Rats society president Ida Edwards was not available for comment. However, during an interview last week she stated she was grateful for the town’s contributions.
