Festival Committee is working to make sure city is reimbursed

The Hamtramck Firefighters decision not to accept our vendor contract and participate in the 2010 Labor Day Festival is unfortunate. Their presence will be missed by residents and visitors alike who looked forward to meeting and supporting “Hamtramck’s Finest.”

As volunteer festival organizers our mission was not only to put on the best event ever, but to do so without further burdening the city financially. Last year’s festival was not a financial success and cost the city over $19,000 after all the bills were paid. The Council and Mayor made a brave decision to support our effort this year given what they knew about festival costs in 2009. We certainly did not want to disappoint them after receiving their overwhelming endorsement of our plans.

With this in mind our first strategy was to review the 2009 financial statement before planning anything. After examining vendor contracts, sales revenues, financial sponsors and costs for security, insurance and the like it became obvious some things had to change if we were to at least break even. As a result we had to break tradition by making changes to our vendor contracts in order to create a financial win-win for both our vendors and our city.

Overall the new contracts have been very well received as you will see in both the quality and quantity of vendors both new and old that have chosen to participate this year. Copies of the new vendor contracts are posted online for all to see at the festival website: http://hamtownfest.com/vendors.html.

We especially welcome the Hamtramck Police Reserves as our designated non-profit organization and hope you will support them as strongly as you have the Hamtramck Firefighters in the past.

Kathleeen Bittner and Rachel Srodek
Hamtramck Labor Day Festival Committee