Pleasantville Music Festival Moves Forward Despite Shortfall
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The organizers of the Pleasantville Music Festival plan to search for additional funding sources and ways to hold down expenses after last summer’s 16th annual festival ended in the red by $36,000.
In July, the popular all-day music event returned to Parkway Field after a two-year hiatus and was greeted with enthusiasm by a large audience craving live music. COVID-19 crowd restrictions had forced the festival to cancel in 2020 and 2021.
Last week, Bruce Figler, the festival’s executive director, spoke of the successes and shortcomings of last summer’s event and his plans for next year.
“It was an odd year and COVID put a damper on a lot of things,” Figler said at last Monday’s Town Board work session. “COVID was raging in July and staff people got hit as did ticket buyers who asked for their money back. With two years off, there was an added difficulty of getting it all done.”
The biggest loss was when the band 10,000 Maniacs canceled a week before the festival because of health-related reasons.
“Our ticket sales got hurt at the door,” Figler said. “The band was the biggest draw of ticket buyers the week before and the day of the festival.”
At the last minute, Figler managed to attract the Canadian alternative rock band Crash Test Dummies to perform.
The village has presented the annual festival since 2005. For its 2022 renewal, it budgeted $253,500, and final revenue was $276,966.
However, expenses totaled $313,358, so the net loss was $36,392.
“The goal with the festival is not to make money or to lose money but to break even,” said Pleasantville Mayor Peter Scherer at the work session. “Even though we lost money, by any measure it was a successful day.”
Expenses that spiked higher than expected included electricity, catering, overtime for village staff and the cost for tents.
“As we start searching for bands for next summer, we will be looking for new revenue sources and ways to cut down on expenses,” Figler said. “We will check into the Westchester Council for the Arts, state and national endowments.”
Figler also plans to work with the village grant writer to seek additional funding sources.
“Some years we ended up in the black and in this case, we ended in the red,” Scherer said. “We keep a general sense of that over the life of the festival for these many years. It’s a big venture that’s worth doing and is a big feather in Pleasantville’s cap.”
Figler also suggested that the village consider changing the date for next summer’s festival, but after a short discussion with the board, it was decided that it should remain the second Saturday in July.
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
