Syracuse’s cultural festivals come with a hefty price tag.
It takes $50,000 to run the three-day long Polish Festival. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade costs $30,000. And $50,000 is the cost of the nine hours of the Latin American Festival. In its prime, the Juneteenth Festival’s bill was $90,000.
But this year, the festivals and parades are struggling to pay their bills. They’re losing state grants that have helped cover the costs as New York tries to close its budget deficit.
“There is no making that up,” said Duane Owens, president of the Juneteenth festival. It celebrates African-American heritage and culture. Added Owens: “There is no other revenue source around to actually make that up.”
Organizers raise money from business sponsors, private donations, and government grants.
The government grants provided to Syracuse’s cultural festivals were sponsored by state Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, say festival organizers. In addition to losing government money, festivals have lost some help from other crucial supporters: businesses and private donors. The economic climate, organizers say, makes it harder for small companies and individuals to donate.
For the St. Patrick’s Day parade, on March 12 this year, a third of the budget has been supplied by government grants, say organizers. Last year, their grant was cut from $10,000 to $4,000. This year, the state did not even accept the St. Patrick’s Day committee’s application, according to parade organizers.
And the loss of business support is a major obstacle, said Janet Higgins, president of the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee. “We have a group of set businesses that have always donated a fairly large amount,” said Higgins. “They cut their donations in half.”
To bring in donations, businesses in the Irish neighborhood of Tip Hill held a fundraiser for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. The Syracuse Crunch hosted an Irish night, with ticket proceeds going to benefit the parade. This is a new concept for the parade, said Higgins. Organizers have never needed to have fundraisers for the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
The bands performing at the St. Patrick’s Day parade agreed to a ten percent pay-cut. If necessary, the next step will be cutting back on pipe bands.
“It breaks my heart,” said Higgins. “I love the pipe bands. It’s a big part of the parade.”
The Polish Festival also has lost almost all of its expected donations from small business and residents, said Tad Szyska, president of the Polish Scholarship Fund. The Polish festival is a three-day long event that showcases Polish culture. World-renowned Polka acts play. Local dancers perform. Vendors sell traditional food and drink, like kielbasa and Polish beer.
To make ends meet, The Polish Festival cut $4,000 from its entertainment budget.
Szyska, insists that these festivals are good for Syracuse’s economy. Visitors pay for hotels. The vendors sell their products. They create jobs by hiring security.
“We are talking about a small thing — it’s three days,” said Szyska. “But this is huge economy for a small community.”
For the Latin American festival, organizers know all too well the difficulties of fundraising. They have never received a government grant for their event, said Shannon Ryan, executive assistant of the Spanish Action League. The group starts fundraising for the next festival immediately after one ends.
“Sponsorships are hard to come by,” said Ryan. “You really have to work at it.”
The Juneteenth festival originally had one of the biggest festival budgets in Syracuse. These days, festival organizers are forced to work with one of the smallest budgets.
“Can you imagine that? You go from $90,000 to $25,000,” said Owens. “There’s not much of a festival left. We’ve had to cut more than keep.”
The Juneteenth festival is a celebration of African-American culture. Community awards are handed out at the Ancestral Recognition ceremony. Miss Juneteenth is crowned. And the weekend is capped off by the parade and festival in Clinton Square. But in recent years, organizers have had to scale back because of fewer donations.
“Syracuse University has cut back. Anheuser-Busch has cut back. Everybody’s cut back,” said Owens. “Chase Manhattan has stopped all together. They said they don’t sponsor community things like this anymore.”
Money or no money, organizers agree that the show must go on. “Without the guaranteed grant money, we don’t know what we have,” said Juneteenth’s Owens, summing up a common theme. “It’s all a hope and a prayer, waiting for someone to come in and give that money to us.”
(Alexandra Spychalsky is a senior with dual majors in magazine journalism and Spanish language, literature and culture.)
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