Liswell: Future of Chicopee Fest of All uncertain
Date: 7/12/2013
By G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.comCHICOPEE — Although 70,000 people attended this year's Fest of All, the future of an annual Fourth of July event is apparently unclear.
Robert Liswell, the founder and the president of the nonprofit organization that has presented the event for the last eight years told
Reminder Publications his group is planning to have some sort of festival downtown in the fall of 2014.
"We just want to change it up," he said.
The goal of moving to downtown would be to promote businesses and restaurants there, he explained.
He said he would like to give another organization the opportunity of staging a Fourth of July celebration at Szot Park and emphasized the volunteer organization makes enough money to sustain itself.
"The Fest of All Corporation is not going anywhere," Liswell said of its stability.
Liswell had not heard that Mayor Michael Bissonnette was questioning the way Fest of All had been financed and the direction of the activities of the four-day event.
Reacting to rumors that this might have been the last Fest of All, Bissonnette said the city is planning to work with the non-profit organization that presents the fair.
"Private donations have begun to dry up," Bissonnette said.
Bissonnette pointed out that on his initial run for mayor he had been asked by residents to investigate the possibility of helping to launch a community-wide event, not unlike the Kielbasa Festival.
The Parks and Recreation Department does participate in Fest of All by sponsoring some of the activities such as the fireworks, the road race and the baseball games, Bissonnette noted.
He said the "original intent" of the event was to stage "a block party." He acknowledged now the attendance of festival has become the size of a small city.
"There may be a need to put less focus on beer [sales] and more focus on it being a family event," he added.
Szot Park is a "great" venue for the event and he would like to see any event continue to have no admission charge and offer free parking.
He would like to have city officials check the organization's books and increase community involvement in the organization's membership, which he described as a "closed circle."
Both Liswell and Bissonnette did make the same statement about Fest of All: "It's been a good eight years," both said.
