The East Peoria Festival of Lights is too expensive as a gift to the community.
It costs $600,000 each year. These costs are mostly labor, including overtime hours worked by public works employees. Maybe these employees like the overtime because it is more money at Christmas, but it seems they are stretched too thin. At the same time as the festival, these same employees are the ones who are working 12-hour shifts to plow snow.
The revenue generated from the Festival totals about $200,000, so the city is spending about $400,000 on an event that was started as a “feel good” attraction for the community.
This is too much money for an event that lasts one month. The money could be better spent on things that will last all year, and perhaps even longer. One example is road repairs, but there are many other things in the city that $600,000 would go a long way in helping.
When the Festival of Lights started 25 years ago, things were different. There was a much larger volunteer base and bus tourism was better.
But things change, and, over the years, the volunteer base has dwindled to a small core group who are a tremendous asset to the Festival. But they can’t do it alone.
Also, Festival chairman Dan Cunningham said 25 years ago, more buses loaded with tourists were coming to town to see the city of lights. At this time, the Par-A-Dice was owned locally and provided travel incentives, such as free meals to draw guests, Cunningham said.
However, tourism is still one thing to consider before axing or reconfiguring the Festival of Lights, because these are dollars spent in the community at hotels and restaurants.
While there are some who come from other states to see the parade and Winter Wonderland, it is a safe bet that most are local, and others may just be home for the holidays, so they are staying with their families rather than at hotels.
And while some local residents may attend the festival attractions every year, it would seem that most would not want to see the same parade year after year. After all, it is cold and crowded during the hour to an hour-and-a-half parade, which also involves police officers working to close roads and direct traffic.
No one wants to be pegged as the Scrooge who killed the Festival, a 25-year tradition in East Peoria. However, some close scrutiny needs to be given to a month-long event that costs $600,000 and produces a deficit. Citizens elected the city council to be responsible stewards of taxpayers’ money.
One solution is to revamp the Festival.
The two main attractions of the Festival are the parade and the Winter Wonderland drive-thru electric park. The free parade is one night, while the Winter Wonderland lasts all month. Winter Wonderland generates revenue because those who drive through have to pay a fee at the gate.
Perhaps the parade can be eliminated and the Winter Wonderland can still take place.
We do not recommend eliminating the parade this year since it is the 25th, but perhaps it could be put on hold in 2010 — the year the downtown development kicks off in East Peoria. Maybe the money saved from the Festival could be applied to that very important development.
We do applaud efforts that are being made so far to be more efficient. These include eliminating the Festival ball, which cost more than it brought in, having volunteers work at Winter Wonderland and converting the floats and lighted displays to LED lights. More efforts like these would be a wonderful gift to the community.
East Peoria, Ill. —
