A longtime Peterborough summer staple is no longer — at least from the perspective of the Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha.
As posted on Facebook this past weekend, the organization has announced it is “reluctantly” ending its involvement with Ribfest.
While the post states that Ribfest “has severely outgrown” its home at Millennium Park in downtown Peterborough, Rotarian and Ribfest committee chair Susan Zambonin tells kawarthaNOW the main reason for Rotary pulling out of the fundraising event is rooted in it being labour-intensive and increasingly expensive to organize but with a diminished return.
“Before the pandemic, we were making money doing Ribfest,” says Zambonin, noting all proceeds from the event went to local and international humanitarian projects supported by Rotary.
“Our first year back after the pandemic, we didn’t expect to make much money and we didn’t. We made money every year since, though we thought it would it would make more. It hasn’t. It actually went down this year (to under $10,000). We were lucky to come away having made a little bit of a profit and so, as a club, we decided that the amount of effort wasn’t worth doing it again.”
While Rotary considered moving the event to another location, it determined changing locations wouldn’t make a substantial difference.
“The idea of having to change weekends if we wanted to do it at Del Crary Park or somewhere else, we analyzed that along with the amount of work it takes throughout the year, not just on the weekend (of the event), and the return on investment,” Zambonin says.
While the cost of required insurance is substantial, it wasn’t a factor in the decision, according to Zambonin, as that cost is borne by Rotary at the district level. However, the other costs related to hosting the event are another thing entirely.
“You have to rent the stage, you have to rent the fencing, you need police and security throughout the weekend, and there’s the cost of renting the park and closing the street to rent the parking lot. That all adds up and, combined with less attendance, lessens the return.”
The Facebook announcement has drawn many comments, with a number making reference to the downtown core’s homeless population and a few writing they don’t feel safe attending the event. Zambonin doesn’t dismiss such concerns, but says perception is reality for many.
“Some people just don’t want to come downtown,” she says. “I think it’s easy to say that it’s the downtown environment that’s a part of it (Rotary’s decision), but I don’t see that as being the biggest stumbling block.”
Instead, Zambonin says, the increased cost of living is a bigger factor affecting attendance.
“This year was a tough year for the economy. Yes, admission was free and the music was free, but you had to pay for alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages. Then you also had to pay for your meal. It’s not a cheap endeavour, especially for families. I think that played a bigger part. In the end, the return just isn’t there, unfortunately.”
But Nour Mazloum, executive director of the Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) executive director, says she’s aware of another group that has expressed some interest in possibly presenting Ribfest this summer.
While she’s not at liberty to identify the group, Mazloum says it is local. Zambonin is also aware of that interest.
“I’ve talked to a business — a company that does rib festivals around the area,” she says.
In the meantime, while lamenting the loss of Ribfest and its drawing of people to the downtown core, Mazloum says she and her team are planning other events for 2025, including a food-related event.
While she agrees the rising costs associated with hosting events is a major obstacle, Mazloum is hopeful that more partnerships with the city on events will be beneficial in terms of an easing of those costs to some degree.
“We’re aware of the perception by some that downtown isn’t safe, but we can change that by hosting events that are family-friendly and safe, and that’s what we’re working to do,” she says. “We’re always interested in anything that will bring more people downtown to experience all it has to offer in terms of shops, restaurants. and atmosphere.”
Watching all this from afar is Lindsay and District Chamber of Commerce executive director Terry Guiel who, for 10 years, guided the DBIA before leaving that role in October 2023. He was a key player in Ribfest when it was organized and staffed by the DBIA before the Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha took over the event exclusively.
“We (the DBIA) were doing Peterborough Pulse, Taste of Downtown, Hootenanny on Hunter, Live and Local Lunches — we were punching way above our weight on events,” he recalls of the pre-pandemic years.
“The events started getting harder and harder, costing more and more, especially because of insurance and policing, and an enormous amount of red tape from the city that made it not enjoyable to run an event. Many of us who organized events coined the insurance person at city hall ‘the fun killer’. Everything was a battle and it was no different for Ribfest, even after Rotary took it over.”
“Costs have devastated events across the province but I think Peterborough took it to a whole new level of not making things easy.”
With many previous downtown Peterborough events having fallen by the wayside since the pandemic, Guiel admits feeling “sad” for both downtown businesses who benefit and the public who enjoy them, but adds that feeling doesn’t extend to Ribfest’s loss. He says Ribfest isn’t unique to Peterborough and doesn’t focus on local businesses.
“I’ve never been a fan of doing something that every other community does,” he says, adding “You can do something that’s 100 per cent local, like a chicken wing festival, as opposed to bringing in these out-of-town ribbers. I think we can come up with something new and more conducive to our changing demographics.”
That said, as a longtime musician, Guiel laments the loss of Ribfest in terms of it providing a stage for local musicians.
“For a young musician, other than the Del Crary Park Musicfest stage and the Peterborough Folk Festival, the Ribfest stage was the premier stage to get the call for,” he notes. “It was a chance to touch a whole new audience, a bigger audience, and play through an incredible sound system. You felt special. It was like our local ‘You made the big time.’
“But the biggest loss is the money that Rotary raised for the community and its projects,” he says.
Guiel remains well aware of the challenge of drawing people downtown in the face of perceived issues over safety, but says it’s “disingenuous” to link that with not coming to events in the core.
“It is just a chance for some to vent about how unsafe they feel in downtowns, not just here but across the province,” he says of the online reaction to the announcement of Ribfest’s cancellation.
Moving forward, for downtown events to be revived, Guiel says “the ball is in the city’s court … and not a pickleball court.”
“The city needs to provide an easier supportive path for event organizers. They need to create somebody at city hall whose job is to expedite and support event organizers, and cut the red tape and costs. I’ve seen event organizers in tears. They’re trying to do something good. I do hope Rotary bounces back with a new idea.”
Zambonin says that may very well happen.
“A couple of years ago, we put together a committee to look at various fundraising events,” she says.
“We do have some ideas. We just have not, as a club, made a decision on what those will be. We’ve got a little bit of time. The money we raised in 2024 won’t get spent until the Rotary year of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. We have a little cushion in our account for a rainy day if we need it.”
