Indian Summer Festival plans cool off
PANAMA CITY BEACH - The Bay County Tourist Development Council's roller coaster of a ride to save the Indian Summer Festival has not ended.
Plans to revitalize the October event at Frank Brown Park hit a major snag Tuesday when TDC President Dan Rowe announced that two organizations that had been competing for the Columbus Day weekend event had withdrawn their requests.
Rowe revealed, however, that a group of Beach businessmen led by restaurateur Jack Bishop has contacted the TDC expressing interest in taking over the festival, and Bishop said he expects to have a firm concept plan drawn up within a week.
News that Navarre-based Multi-Media LLC and Beach Events Inc. of Panama City Beach had pulled out of festival planning brought frowns to the TDC board, which has wrestled for months to reorganize the event as a fall tourist attraction.
In recent years, the festival has become popular with Bay County residents, but its promoter had failed to market it for out-of-state fall travelers.
The TDC's Marketing Committee on April 18 had secured the tentative agreement from the two competitors in which Jeffrey Wolfe of Multi-Media LLC verbally agreed to reorganize the Indian Summer Festival as a seafood event. Beach Events Inc., whose principals run the twice-yearly Thunder Beach motorcycle rallies, said they planned to organize a separate autumn event centered on music and the arts.
"Neither one of the two parties is still standing," Rowe told the TDC board.
Bishop told the directors he and his partners plan an event budget of $250,000. He added the group would have a "full-blown proposal" ready for TDC consideration in a week or less.
Corky McCollum, a director of Beach Events Inc., said his group still intends to request TDC support to run the Indian Summer Festival in 2009 and has withdrawn only from seeking to operate this year's event.
"If Mister Bishop wants to take it on for this year, that is fine," McCollum said.
Rowe said he plans to prepare a formal contract for the Bishop group proposal for the TDC board to review.
TDC Chairman Andy Phillips said the board expects to vote on the Bishop plan at its June meeting or, if necessary, a special board meeting.