Question 4 for Saline City Council Candidates: Should the City Continue To Be Involved in the Celtic Festival?

At a meeting earlier this year, it appeared Saline's signature event might not survive a city council. The Saline Celtic Festival survived the 4-3 vote and the 2011 edition of the festival brought nearly 5,000 people to Mill Pond Park and engaged hundreds of city volunteers.

Thanks to a five percent increase in attendance and a push for more business sponsorships, the city-owned festival generated $62,000 in revenue and managed to bank about $800 that will be put in a rainy day. A new Friends of the Celtic Festival Foundation has been formed to promote the festival and to begin taking on more of the responsibilities and obligations.

With a successful festival in the books, a new foundation taking on more work, and relevant information presented to the city much earlier, the city council voted 6-1 to approve the 2012 event. But at a time when revenue is scarce and cuts have been made, some are questioning the city's role in the festival.

“I do not believe it is the appropriate role of government to underwrite community events. And frankly, in these economic times, I don’t believe it is worth the risk,” said City Councillor Brian Marl, the lone no vote when the issue was brought up in September. “We have three successful events in the city that receive nominal government support compared to the Celtic Festival. These groups are citizen-driven, financially viable and continue to expand. In my judgment, that’s the model the community should follow.”

Mayor Gretchen Driskell has been one of the festival's strongest supporters.

She said that visitors to the festival return for other Saline events, shop in stores and eat in restaurants. And, she said, the event has a larger purpose.

“Internally, what we’ve done in this community is create a great resource for volunteers and people to get together and see each other. I understand there is some concern about having a fun event in these economic times,” Driskell said.

She said that the festival has been an inspiration for many youngsters who’ve gone on to bigger things in the Celtic music world.

“They get their inspiration in this place where we share joy together around music and entertainment,” she said. “You go down there and see all these crazy things going on—the Vikings, Mill Pond Millie. It’s wild. And then the next day you go down there and the tents are all gone and you can do your little quiet run through the park and see the geese, and everything’s back to normal. It’s like this little magic happened.”f

Here is today's question:

The cityʼs involvement in the Celtic Festival has been a source disagreement. If elected, what approach will you take toward the festival?

John Heller

As stated in my answer to question one, I feel that the Celtic Festival is a total misallocation of city funds. It is not an essential services, and therefore should be the first thing cut when the city is experiencing tight budgets, as it is now.

In addition, if a majority of the council should decide to continue to fund the festival on a continuing basis, I believe it should require the festival committee to repay the $34,102 it still owes the city for previous festival funding.

Linda TerHaar

I would like to see the Festival continue. It is a great community event, and draws attention and visitors to Saline. We need to have the festival become more financially independent of the city. The steps the festival committee has taken in that direction this year were a very good start. I would expect continued progress, recognizing that this is a process that will take time.

Jim Peters

The Celtic Festival is good business for Saline and here why. The city waives city services for all festivals not just the Celtic Festival. But the Celtic festival brings us national and international attention, attracts many new people into our city and involves a great many Saline residents. This is a unique festival that has hosted several world class events and entertainers. Most others cities would love to have such a flagship festival. The Celtic Festival has already taken steps to reduce its cost to the city and financially restructure itself for the future.

The following are facts regarding Art and Culture programs in our Washtenaw County. Saline shares in this success:

• Economic impact to Washtenaw County is $165 million.
• Arts and Culture events generate over 2,600 jobs in the county.
• $49.5 million in dinning, shopping due to cultural events in area.
• 57% of business think access to culture programs are important to recruiting and retaining qualified employees.
• 63% of business owners state cultural programs were a deciding factor when location their business to Washtenaw Co.
• National studies show kids who participate in cultural programs do better in school.

Jim Roth

Have the “Friends of the Festival,” a 501c3 nonprofit, handle all festival income and expenses rather than the City of Saline. The city can annually decide how much they can contribute to the festival.