WESTLOCK – Westlock County councillors balked at providing any cash to the inaugural Music Mash Festival slated for the September long weekend, instead choosing to offer in-kind support that may include fencing, garbage cans and road barriers.
At their Aug. 9 meeting, councillors spent nearly 25 minutes debating a sponsorship request from the festival organizers — administration had recommended the municipality pony up $750 to be a bronze sponsor, which would have included two, all-weekend passes and the municipality’s name being added to the sponsorship banners. Reps from the festival did not make the request in person, with community services coordinator Adrienne Finnegan telling councillors that “previous administration” said a delegation wasn’t needed.
While councillors by and large lauded the first-time festival and noted the Westlock-based organizers will donate a portion of the profits to charities like the Soul Sisters Memorial Foundation, Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation and Bullying Enns Ltd., Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson said that donating to a for-profit event while they’re considering cutting services to residents “sends a bad message.” Deputy reeve Ray Marquette agreed, saying he personally supports a handful of events with donations and didn’t “believe we should be taking ratepayers’ money and supporting this as they don’t have a choice.”
Music Mash, which already has a handful of platinum ($5,000), gold ($2,500) and silver ($1,500) sponsors, is slated to run Sept. 2-4 at the Westlock Ag Society Grounds and will feature 10 bands — see more on the event here. The county donated $160 for advertising expenses to the recent Blue Suede Music Festival held at the beginning of the month, although those dollars had been previously budgeted.
“We are having conversations quite openly about cutting services and things like that. And I understand that $750 is not going to break the municipality, but I genuinely think that it sends the wrong message for us to take this sponsorship,” said Fox-Robinson, noting the $750 would have been a non-budgeted expense.
“I think the conversation we’re having comes back to our community grant funding. While I feel these events are important, I think the county has to take a really hard look at how we’re engaging with our community. It comes back to strategic planning.
“And I think that if each councillor feels we should, they could give $100 from their own pocket to go towards this. I’d be more than happy to put $100 of my own money on the table.”
Ultimately councillors voted 5-2 to provide an in-kind donation and will work with festival organizers to see what they’ll need — CAO Tony Kulbisky said in an Aug. 17 e-mail they’re “waiting on the organizers to indicate where the in-kind support is actually needed to determine what we are able to provide in support.”
Town of Westlock CAO Simone Wiley said they weren’t formally approached for a sponsorship but sat down with organizers recently to “discuss traffic flow and what their needs were for the event.”
“Basically, the town support will be by way of in-kind as well in terms of our peace officers. We’re going to run it the same as the Blue Suede Festival where the Pickardville Road will be closed to north-bound traffic to allow the RVs to get into the site and not have to worry about cross traffic and then we’ll be providing patrols throughout the weekend,” said Wiley Aug. 18.
In-kind still a cost, say councillors
Even the in-kind donation was concerning to Fox-Robinson and Marquette, who both voted against, saying there’s a cost to providing staff to pick up and drop off things like the fencing and barriers.
“Respectfully, an in-kind donation does have a financial impact on the municipality. So, if council is going to give an in-kind donation it should be well understood what council is approving,” said Fox-Robinson, who had asked for a limit or dollar value to be placed on the in-kind donation.
“I think we were against doing a $750 donation because we were spending the ratepayers’ money. Now, we’re going to do an in-kind donation … we’re still spending ratepayers’ money. I think we need to table this and let it go,” Marquette added. “We had an ag fair that was cancelled because of COVID for two years and they’re barely making a go. Are we going to turn around and give them a donation? No, is no. If we’re not going to donate $750, that means we’re not donating. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, it’s either yes or no.”
Coun. Isaac Skuban said he’d be willing to pick up and drop off the items if needed “and if it maybe means us as a council volunteering our time, I’m down with that.” At least four councillors at the meeting also agreed to donate $100 individually to the event.
“I’ll leave it to administration. If they need to use fencing, if it’s an employee to drop it off … I’m sure there’s room in the budget to have someone drop something off or pick something up. I’ll leave this with our CAO to make it happen,” said Coun. Jared Stitsen, who made the motion to provide the in-kind support.
“I understand the county isn’t in the best financial spot, but we need to support the community and I’m going to vote for this motion,” added Skuban.
