For the last several years, residents of Niverville have gathered in November for Winterfest, an opportunity for people to do some holiday shopping from local vendors, entertain kids with games and crafts, and sip hot cocoa while the community tree lights up for the first time.
Unfortunately, the Niverville Chamber of Commerce had announced that the Winterfest market has been cancelled this year.
“Winterfest would be limited to 50 percent capacity based on current COVID guidelines,” says Brenda Desjardins, Executive Director of the Niverville Chamber. “We also have stringent crowd control measures that would have to take place.”
Desjardins says that a lot of different factors went into the difficult decision to cancel the popular event.
The economics of it just did not work out. Last year, there were 78 vendor tables available. This year, that number would have been reduced to 37. However, most of the event’s fixed expenses would have remained the same, regardless of the number of vendors, and those expenses begin to accumulate in October.
“We did a profit projection based on the reduced vendors/attendees, and we would be in a potential deficit position [if we proceeded],” she says. “There is also the possibility that the event could be cancelled without notice, which could leave the Chamber in a loss position.”
Several vendors had already cancelled proactively.
Economics aside, though, Desjardins stresses that the greatest consideration was the community’s safety. Foremost among these concerns was the fact that the event venue is attached to a personal care home. Also, inevitably, in order to control the number of people inside the Heritage Centre, line-ups would have needed to form outside—and considering the unpredictability of November weather, that presents a clear problem.
“The Chamber deemed the risk to our community too great to proceed, even if we had the opportunity to operate at full capacity in 2020,” Desjardins says. “Cancelling early also allows the Heritage Centre time to find another party to rent the facility based on availability.”
She says the Chamber will continue to support the event in the future, and that they thank all of Winterfest’s previous vendors and attendees for their enthusiasm in the past.
“We are currently exploring other options to assist our Chamber members that have historically participated,” she adds. “We are cautiously optimistic that the event will proceed in 2021, and have already reserved the space in anticipation.