By Andrew de Souza

Winter festival to run

Dec 1, 2010 | 5:14 AM

Enough volunteers turned out at Tuesday night’s Prince Albert Festival committee meeting to ensure the survival of the festival for another year.

About 15 community members turned out offer support after a call went out that the festival couldn’t be held without more than the handful of volunteers who ran the festival last year.

Committee president Jim Stiglitz said after discussions around the table, it became obvious that the festival can go on for another year.

“From the amount of people that showed and the interest, I think it’s going to go on, I think the feeling around the table is, it’s going to go,” he said.

The festival has had a few difficult years of attracting volunteers after several years of financial mismanagement left the committee with more than $35,000 in debt.

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The committee paid those debts with the proceeds from last year, but the organizing had drained the few volunteers that were available to help.

In November, at the committee’s annual general meeting, Stiglitz and the rest of the committee agreed that if more support couldn’t be drummed up the small group just couldn’t do it.

On Tuesday enough people came out and the decision to continue the festival was made.
Several important details have yet to be decided on however.

The location is the festival caused the biggest debate. Members argued over whether or not the festival should be at its previous location south of Marquis Road, at the Little Red River Park or the Prince Albert Exhibition grounds.

The group made a motion to approach the Exhibition to determine the availability of the grounds, but no concrete decision was made. Members agreed that a combination of locations could end up being the solutions.

As well, the group didn’t decide on what types of events would be held, due to a lack of a definite setting.

Stiglitz said he and the committee host as many events as possible in order to make it a fun time for the whole family.

“What events will go? All we can do. There’s a lot of events and I hope we can do them all and if not, we’ll do all we can—it’s up to the volunteers,” he said.

The committee agreed to meet every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Tourism office and they still are looking for volunteers.

adesouza@panow.com