Ideas discussed to keep Heritagefest alive

By KEVIN SWEENEY

Journal Editor

NEW ULM -- When it comes to dreaming up new attractions to boost Heritagefest attendance, Kathleen Backer feels the sky should be the limit

But sauerkraut wrestling?

Why not, asked Heritagefest's executive director Friday, at a New Ulm Chamber of Commerce "Hot Topics" breakfast Friday morning. If Barnesville can feature mashed potato wrestling at its Potato Days festival, why shouldn't Heritagefest have a sauerkraut wrestling pit?

Sauerkraut wrestling may not be a new attraction at next year's Heritagefest, but Backer feels that kind of wide open, creative thinking is needed to come up with activities that will attract a younger audience and keep them coming.

That, along with developing other sources of revenue, will be needed to keep Heritagefest alive and thriving, she said.

The city's premier ethnic festival "has come to a crossroads," said Backer and Heritagefest Board chairman Hugh Nierengarten, who also spoke at the breakfast. Three straight years of financial losses have drained the festival's surplus funds, which stood at over $200,000 after the 2000 festival.

Heritagefest expects this year's losses to leave about $10,000 to $20,000 in the bank, said Nierengarten. Without developing new sources of revenue, Heritagefest would be facing the prospect of going into the red next year, something Nierengarten said the board of directors is not prepared to do.

Heritagefest has been seeking sponsorships and donations from businesses and groups in the city. Heritagefest is seeking for $100,000 in sponsorship money, and is looking for ways to trim another $25,000 to $30,000 from its budget.

The board will have to decide at its Nov. 25 meeting whether it will be feasible to continue the festival next year. The decision has to be made now in order to give the festival time to contract with entertainers and commit to all the other arrangements that need to be made in order to have a festival next July.

Nierengarten said the Heritagefest board made some mistakes in the past few years.

"I think our mistake in 2001 and 2002 was attributing our losses solely to the weather," said Nierengarten. "I think that was wrong. I think there were other factors at play."

The festival business has become much more competitive, said Nierengarten. New festivals have popped up in the past few years and there are only so many dollars people have to spend on them. "We didn't recognize that as adequately as we should have," said Nierengarten.

While Heritagefest recognized the need to develop sponsorships, "we didn't work on that as hard as we should have," said Nierengarten. Heritagefest lined up seven corporate sponsors last year, but it proved to be far too little.

"Festivals like ours can no longer exist on their gate income and internally-generated income," said Nierengarten.

Heritagefest is looking at ways to cut expenses, said Nierengarten, but he emphasized that cutting the festival back to one weekend of operation was not an option. The fixed costs for the festival, including rental of the Brown County fairgrounds, would not drop if the festival went to one weekend, said Nierengarten. And the loss of a second Saturday's revenue would throw the festival even deeper into deficit.

"The success of Heritagefest has been predicated on have two Saturdays," said Nierengarten.

Backer addressed the need to develop not only sponsorships, but new festgoers. "We have acknowledged that over the last 29 years a lot of our audience is falling off the back end, literally."

Older festgoers who have been the mainstay of the festival are dying, or moving to nursing homes, or finding it more difficult to get to the festival. Backer said Heritagefest has a need to develop a younger audience in the 18- to 35-year-old bracket. Changes have been made in the past couple of years. Season passes have been available in advance to allow local festgoers to attend several nights at one price. Multicultural programming has been added. Artists like Lynn Marie and the area rock band Powerhouse were featured last year, attracting younger crowds.

Different varieties of food were tried, some successful, and some less popular.

New activities, like the Star Search contest and the climbing wall, were added. The festival is looking for more activities that will attract interest -- like sauerkraut wrestling.

Since putting out its call for sponsors, Heritagefest has been getting a good response, said Backer. The New Ulm Retail Association pledged $10,000. The Chamber of Commerce pledged $15,000 from its Bobblehead sales funds. Other sources, including grants from German-American groups and other foundations outside of New Ulm, are being explored.

Backer said these contributions are needed to tide the festival over until a full-fledged sponsorship program can be developed, a program she thinks can be fully in place by 2006.

Backer thinks the effort is doable, and is worth doing.

"I have faith in Heritagefest," she said. Heritagefest provides significant name recognition for New Ulm, in Minnesota and outside the state. The kick Heritagefest provides to the local economy is also significant.

"As we go into our meeting on Nov. 25, my recommendation is going to be solid, based on having those dollars. We are excited about the future. We will have the money to pay those vendors and entertainers."