ASK THE MAYOR
Organizing, hosting EC festival can boost community
MAYOR PHILLIP SPENRATH

The Poteet Strawberry Festival, Fiesta San Antonio, Stonewall Peach Jamboree, Luling Watermelon Thump, and the El Campo.... Let's start a festival!

Organizing and hosting a festival is a huge accomplishment for any community. A festival can be an incredibly satisfying experience for all those who volunteer and commit their efforts to complete the project. Making a difference in one's community is what makes a great community, and if creating a festival in turn has a positive economic impact and entices guests to make return visits, then it is a double success.

Festivals can be an amazingly effective way of unifying a community while increasing citizen awareness of the value and potential impact that tourism can have by 1) bringing in financial support to the hosting entity or non-profit group; 2) increasing our quality of life by providing a rewarding family and community fellowship event; 3) financially impacting area hotels, restaurants, retail, etc.; and 4) educating visitors, relatives and neighbors about the people, places and history that make El Campo a great place to live and visit.

Research indicates that tourism dollars generated by a well-organized and effectively publicized festival can turn over seven times in a community, thereby generating additional sales tax dollars which will help in keeping all of our individual taxes down.

Currently, we have several groups working together to try and develop the ultimate festival that will be well-supported and accurately reflect the culture, tradition and identity of El Campo. Enthusiastic members from your City Council, the El Campo Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture, the Texas Aquaculture Association and local downtown business owners have discussed possible festival themes, sponsorships, locations and festival events.

While planning is still in its early infancy, the progressive ideas and excitement generated by these representatives will certainly result in economic success and positive community recognition for our city.

Concerning the location, all participants agree that an El Campo festival must remain in El Campo and preferably be held in our historic downtown business district. We have a number of parks that can be utilized along with the generous support of several downtown businessmen who have offered their facilities and expertise for the project.

Accessibility, parking, locations for arts and crafts vendors, carnival rides, cook-off venues and forums for musical performances must all be taken into consideration.

Some festival elements currently being discussed are an early morning marathon/fun run; mid-morning parade; mid-day dinner/cook-off; afternoon tractor pull and/or fire department pumper races; followed up by an evening of musical entertainment and dancing.

Other ideas include incorporating a queen's contest, softball tournament, antique car show, story-telling and domino tournament.

Cook-off suggestions include seafood, chili and of course, Texas barbecue. Contributors believe it is imperative that we encourage local restaurateurs and area cooks to open up select booths and sell their specially prepared entrees to festival attendees. Can you imagine how many return visitors El Campo will experience once guests get a taste of our locally prepared delicacies?

There have been suggestions to focus our community festival efforts toward furthering the promotion and success of existing and extremely popular local events like Heatin' It Up For Hospice and the El Campo Christmas Parade. In addition, the Texas Aquaculture Association has been active participants among our working groups and is seeking to establish a local festival event that will promote their important and unique industry, along with educating visitors about the opportunities and exceptional qualities El Campo has to offer.

A well-planned, highly promoted, and strongly supported festival can greatly impact El Campo's social and economic development. If you have festival ideas, or would like to share in the development of a local celebration, please contact me.

As your mayor, my primary objective continues to be preparing El Campo for the future while maintaining our community's friendly small-town atmosphere.

- Contact the mayor at askthemayor@sbcglobal.net.

Note: Per Leader-News policy of ending columns written by political candidates a month prior to the start of early voting, Mayor Spenrath's final column until after the May 10 City Council election will be printed March 29. Early voting starts April 28.