Organizers set to revive July 4 celebration after one year hiatus
It's a go.
After the cancellation of last year's Independence Day at Fort Vancouver due to lack of funds, event organizer Fort Vancouver National Trust is ready to bring back the popular festival on July 4 – albeit with a few changes.
That includes an increase in the number of stages, a switch in location for the fireworks display and perhaps most importantly, a complete overhaul in the way organizers looked to pay for it all.
Unlike years past, funding for next month's celebration comes from a much more diverse pool of sources, including corporate sponsors Bank of America and Burlington Northern Santa Fe, private donors and, in a first for the 46-year-old event, paid ticket holders.
"We're looking to have a sustainable event that pays for itself year-to-year," said Trust president and CEO Elson Strahan. "And we're confident we can do it."
The new financing structure for the July 4 celebration was announced at a press conference held on April 28, in part reflecting the dramatically changed budget picture for the event's traditional patrons, the City of Vancouver and Clark County.
However, that budget picture has tightened even further since then, with city officials recently informing event organizers that it would not be able to offer "in-kind" support, leaving the Trust responsible for essential services such as traffic enforcement and security, Strahan said.
To counter the loss of public funding, organizers looked to raise more money from private sector sources and looked for ways to cut costs for the day-long festival.
According to Strahan, the biggest savings came from the decision not to launch fireworks from a barge on the Columbia River, opting instead for a location south of Pearson Air Museum – a move that resulted in a few angry phone calls to the Trust's offices from Hayden Island and North Portland residents, but trimmed $80,000 from the event's budget.
Other savings came from the switch from one large event stage featuring costly plasma TV screens to four smaller less high-tech equipped stages, allowing for a more diverse selection of musical performances, historical reenactments and family-friendly entertainment.
Overall, the budget for this year's festival is $350,000, down considerably from the 2008 event's $450,000 final tally, Strahan said.
According to Strahan, $100,000 of this year's budget is composed of proceeds from a tax on last year's fireworks sales in Clark County, with a good portion also coming from individual, business and corporate donors.
Last week, event organizers got some good news in the form of a $10,000 grant from Liberty Mutual's "Bring Back the Fourth," set up to help cash-strapped communities across the U.S. save their Independence Day celebrations.
"We are thrilled to be one of 10 grant recipients nationwide," said Kim Hash, director of programs at the Trust and chief choreographer of the July 4 event. "We are still counting on people to step up and help us fund this community-wide celebration."
Strahan acknowledged that, in the end, the Trust will have to rely on ticket sales from the general public to make up the difference. "At this point, the big unknown for us is ticket sales," he said.
In 2008, the last year the Independence Day event was held, the festival drew around 60,000 attendees, according to estimates provided by the National Park Service.
With advance tickets priced at $5, $7 the day of the event, Strahan hopes to draw at least as many this year, knowing that a good portion will be composed of children under 13 years old who will be attending the festival for free.
In past years, with a system of voluntary donations in place, the Trust raised about $45,000, according to Strahan. This year, Strahan hopes to exceed that amount, with tickets sold online via the Trust's website, at ticket gates the day of the celebration and with the help of local youth sports organizations getting $1 for every July 4 event admission pass purchased.
More than a week before the event, Trust staffers were optimistic that area residents would do their part to help revive a decades-old Southwest Washington tradition of spending a warm evening watching fireworks, eating hot dogs and celebrating the birth of a nation.
"The feedback we're getting is that everyone is excited to come back," Strahan said. "And we look forward to welcoming them."
As for the future of the festival, Strahan sounded a cautionary note – not surprising given the looming shortfall in city and county budgets and a lingering regional economic recession which only recently has tilted toward broad-based recovery.
"We won't know until the day itself," he said. "On July 5, we will discuss what needs to be done."
