Last year’s Farm Festival drew 30,000 to downtown in August.

I’ve been sitting back and taking a bashing. I’ve been taking the dirty names I’m being called. I’ve even taken the two death threats I’ve gotten.

The issue with all of this is that all these people bashing me apparently don’t know the whole story or are turning a blind eye and just want to complain about something while using me as a punching bag. It’s time for me to say something.

First, for those that don’t know, the Fredonia Farm Festival is not run by the village. It is run by a 501c3 organization called Festivals Fredonia. A non-profit organization that volunteers their time to run festivals for the community. The only time the village is involved is to grant permission to use the park.

It’s not like I kept it a secret that I was stepping down from the festival. It was even on the front page of the paper before last year’s festival. I encouraged people to shadow me during planning to get a hang of it, but no one did. I notified all the vendors. I notified Festivals Fredonia. I notified everyone.

True, Ivy Rivera did come up to me during the festival and say she was interested. Yes, she said to stop by. I did try once, but she was with a customer. For those that have seen me during the weekend of the festival, I am very busy. I am running around doing a thousand things, trying not to forget things. If she was that interested in running it, then call me. She has my number. At least her PR rep does for sure.

I have not received one phone call from anyone about anything to do with the festival since I stepped down. Everyone knew last July that I was stepping down. Here it is eight months later. How is that my fault? I had nothing to do with Festivals Fredonia’s decision to cancel the festival. I stepped down from Festivals Fredonia immediately after last year’s Farm Festival. I am not part of their decision making.

Former trustee David Bird keeps stating that I only attended one meeting last year for ten minutes so why am I complaining about the village? Well, he is right that I attended only one trustee meeting. What he is casually leaving out is the fact that he introduced a new vendor law that affected all the festivals and the Farmer’s Market. This required us to attend multiple planning board meetings to fight for what was right.

I care about my vendors, and I don’t want to see them paying any more money than necessary. They are just trying to make a living. So, because of the village, I had to spend multiple hours discussing something that shouldn’t have been an issue to begin with. Every year I ran the festival, I had some sort of roadblock or hurdle. From the food truck law (which was one we had to fight for years) to the reconstruction of the park to signs in the park, and the list could go on. When the food truck fee was first introduced, the fee was $500. Some food vendors paid this fee. For those that say that’s not true, I’d be happy to give you a couple phone numbers to vendors that paid this fee that year.

After numerous meetings and fighting, the fee was reduced to $150. Just once it would have been nice to walk into the board meeting and hear “How can we help you?” That never once happened. All meetings are recorded so anyone can go back and look at them if you don’t believe me. At last year’s meeting I was asked by the board and the Police Chief to open Park and Day streets.

Anyone who attended the festival knows that isn’t possible. Former trustee Bird stated in that meeting that I can have them closed for that festival but have to open them for next year.

Feel free to go back and look at the recording. That moment right there was when I decided I couldn’t do it anymore. I already knew what next year’s fight was going to be.

I’ve heard from people that Mayor Michael Ferguson is saying that I need to hand over all the knowledge from my experience. If that is the case, why hasn’t Mayor Ferguson called me? Again, no one has. I saw Mayor Ferguson last week and he said hello. That was it. He could have even sat with me at lunch, but that didn’t happen. If this is such a heated subject and people are demanding I turn stuff over, why hasn’t anyone called me? Why didn’t he say something to me last week? I did have one person actually come to see me to ask me questions about the festival to see if they wanted to run it. I haven’t heard back so I guess they decided not to run it.

As far as turning stuff over, I’m not sure what people want from me. Festivals Fredonia has the entire list of vendors but because of privacy concerns are not at liberty to share them. They have always had this. Most everything about running the festival is in my head. I did my best to create a handbook, but it’s a tough thing to write everything down. Festivals Fredonia has had this handbook the entire time.

As far as tents and stuff for the festival, again Festivals Fredonia has everything. So, I did turn everything over. Also, every resolution I typed up should be part of the Village records. The resolution states what needs to be closed when. It lays out the festival. The village should have that. I’m not sure what people want. I guess if someone just called me (or even emailed me) and told me what they wanted that would be different. I’d like to state again that no one has called or reached out to ask me.

I enjoyed running the Farm Festival. I enjoyed every minute of it. Yes, it does take a lot of time and yes it was all volunteer work. I never got paid for it. I did get a free sandwich from a food vendor, but that was it.

For those who have run events, vendors come and go. The only way to keep the list current is by attending festivals and collecting business cards. I attended every festival within a 200-mile radius just looking for vendors.

Believe it or not, that takes time. Every year we tried adding more and more to the festival to see it grow even more. The more you add the more time it takes to plan it.

Last year’s festival was, in my opinion, the best festival ever. We had more food and craft vendors than ever before. The crowd was phenomenal. I take pride in organization. Everything I do is well organized.

The comments I got from many vendors last year was that they didn’t want to see me go because the Farm Festival is the most organized event they attend. All that organization takes time. For those that think it shouldn’t take 1,000 hours, they should step up and run it. It takes time to go around and solicit baskets for the basket raffle. Anyone who saw last year’s basket raffle will say it was an amazing raffle. As I told my committee, we are going out with a bang. Everything we did last year was above and beyond what we did any year prior to that. I heard nothing but good comments last year. Me stepping down had nothing to do with the fact that I was tired of running the festival. Like I said, I enjoyed every minute including the 16-hour days during the festival.

It had to do with the fact that I was tired of the village. I kept hearing wait till the next election, it’ll be different. I have been through two mayors and numerous trustees, nothing has changed. I still get questioned every year. I still had to fight over some silly law. The Farm Festival draws thousands of visitors to the village. These people stay here, sleep here, eat here for the weekend. It draws business and attention to the Village. Not once did I hear, “How can we help?” I know I said that once but wanted to state it again. For something that is the biggest event in this area, you’d think the board would want to eagerly help out.

I never asked for a thank you. I never asked to get paid. I never asked for recognition. I only asked for people who wanted to help. It takes many hands to run the festival the way everyone expects it to run now.

In closing, I’d like to say that I don’t believe I should be bashed the way I have been. There have been people standing up for me and to those people I say thank you. To everyone that has helped me run the festivals through the years, another thank you.

To the others, stop bashing me. I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve to get death threats. I don’t deserve to be called lazy. For those that know me, I am far from lazy.

I am not the only individual standing in anyone’s way from running the festival. I am not the one that made the decision to cancel the festival. I am not holding anything back. No one has called me.

My phone number hasn’t changed. If someone is actually interested in running the festival, I’d be happy to give my advice. Good luck to anyone wanting to take it over.

Mark Mackey is a Fredonia resident.