I was stunned when I saw on News 8 this morning that the Festival of the Arts is going away. I'm unsure where its funding came from, but this weekend it was unceremoniously announced there would be no Festival in 2025 or at any other point in the future.
Anyone know the back story?
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Festival of the Arts is no more
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Festival of the Arts is no more
Hey Tigers - your new scoreboard signage looks LAME AS HELL.
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Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
Like most things in Grand Rapids, was it funded by the DeVos family or the Van Andel family?
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Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
i remember one year a while ago, one of the vip's with a golf cart and a walkie talkie came by and chewed my ass out over handing out bumper stickers. i never gave a shit about that particular festival again. i'm 19 and doing what i was asked to do ya dick head
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Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
COVID took a toll on a lot of events.
Generations attended then the habit/tradition got broken. Attendees move, others lose interest. Who knows what event security for the event could be and how it would be paid
Generations attended then the habit/tradition got broken. Attendees move, others lose interest. Who knows what event security for the event could be and how it would be paid
Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
We went during the Phish shows last year and I was pretty underwhelmed. It seemed to die a slow death.
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- Jay2ThePee
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Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
The report I heard is that they couldn't find enough volunteers. There was a staple of volunteers who were gone and they couldn't fill all the rolls.


- Bull Shannon
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Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
I also read that part of the reason why they had trouble recruiting and retaining a new generation of volunteers was because of a "we've always done it this way" mentality by the entrenched old guard that wasn't receptive to any of the fresh ideas these newcomers were proposing.Jay2ThePee wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2025 8:01 am The report I heard is that they couldn't find enough volunteers. There was a staple of volunteers who were gone and they couldn't fill all the rolls.
Re: Festival of the Arts is no more
Just speaking from personal experience, they didn't treat volunteers or festival participates very well. My weekly comedy show, the Sunday Night Funnies, use to be a part of it. We'd pack the tent on the corner of Ottawa & Fountain early Saturday evenings, then they moved us way out to the di Suvero stage and scheduled the show in the middle of the afternoon.
The time that I was supposed to handle a position within the organization they'd were slow to reply if they replied at all.
The time that I was supposed to handle a position within the organization they'd were slow to reply if they replied at all.