SAVOY, Ill. (AP) — A central Illinois festival has been canceled after failing to generate enough interest or revenue.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports trustees in Savoy voted to end its annual Orchard Days.
Trustees say the fall festival had underwhelming attendance during its five-year run.
It cost the village about $60,000 per year. Those expenses were supposed to be offset mainly by the hotel/motel tax. That tax provided about $35,000 per year. The rest of the cost of the festival had to be paid for out of Savoy’s general fund.
Trustee Jan Carter Niccum says: “Financially, it may be in our best interest to go in a different direction.”
Trustee Joan Dykstra voted to keep the festival. She says she hopes the board can find another way to bring the community together.