4-30-09 - 12:05 p.m. - Two big-name gatherings in Columbia County have disappeared in as many years, but there is no shortage of events planned for the county in 2009.
That's good news for Columbia County officials, who plan to step up efforts to lure “staycation” tourists from across the Capital Region to visit the county and see all that it has to offer.
The Columbia County Board of Supervisors recently approved providing more than $6,000 in funds to subsidize numerous festivals in the county this year, during the summer, fall, and winter, Ann Cooper of the Tourism Department told ccSCOOP. |
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The festivals range from the traditional—the July 4 Family Festival at the county fairgrounds in Chatham—to the new and maybe even scary—the Ghost Walk Tour, a new event created by Bindlestiff Family Variety Arts, Inc., and scheduled for November 6.
Cooper said the annual appropriation through her agency represented just a fraction of the $30,000 in requests received from twenty-one different events and functions. “There’s been no shortage of requests,” said Cooper.
While that may be the case, it’s also true that two major festivals in the county will not take place this year: the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival and the Celebration of Celts. The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, which for more than three decades drew thousands of spectators from around the country to Ancramdale, was forced to relocate last year to Oak Hill in Greene County after its Ancramdale location was sold. The Celebration of Celts, which drew hundreds if not thousands to the fairgrounds or other venues in recent years, has been put on hiatus until 2011, according to its website, because of lack of funding.
Cooper acknowledged that the loss of these festivals is unfortunate, but said the county still has plenty of attractions and hopes that a new strategy of increased marketing in the Capital Region will highlight them. The long-time tourism director said her agency will expand its marketing efforts from the typical downstate markets of the lower Hudson Valley and New York City to include Albany and the Capital Region. “With the economy tight, let’s let the [people of the] region know what is going on right here in their own backyards,” said Cooper.
The list of festivals receiving funding from the county follows:
Cooper said the economy will be the wild card this year in terms of how the festivals and other tourism-related activities in the county fare."The impact of the economy remains to be seen. People are looking for entertainment close to home— taking staycations—and we have a large area to draw from,” Cooper said.
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