The Maitland Rotary Club has decided to end the annual art festival that it has hosted for almost 50 years after several votes, two strategic evaluations, and many difficult discussions.
According to Kelly Feist, president of the Maitland Rotary Art Festival Board of Trustees, “I can’t express how incredibly challenging this was.”
The event, which has been held annually since 1976, has historically been held at Lake Lily Park in November. According to Feist, there were 121 musicians at the 2024 festival and more are on the waiting list.
The rotary club used the art fair to earn money, which it subsequently gave to nearby charitable organizations. It brought in $44,000 last year, the most in ten years.
But according to Feist, the club had trouble recruiting volunteers who could commit the necessary time to plan the three-day event—issues that have also plagued other art festivals.
According to Feist, the Rotary volunteer team spends months organizing the festival, but recently, many members haven’t been able to devote as much time.
I’ve heard—and I must admit that it’s most likely from some of our younger members—that I’m setting aside time for my family. Although it takes away from their volunteer time, I’m thrilled to hear that’s what matters most to them right now.
The Rotary hopes that the art festival will return in the future and is already exploring new fundraising opportunities, perhaps shorter ones that only require a few hours of work.
Janet Gamache, the organizer of other yearly art festivals in Central Florida, such as those in Lake Nona and Mount Dora, stated that these events suffer similar problems nationwide because seasoned organizers retire and young volunteers don’t take over.
According to Gamache, volunteers simply want to turn up. They wish to spend two or three hours there each day before leaving to return home. They don’t want to put in the extra effort required to organize a festival.
According to Gamache, the reason why fewer retirees and stay-at-home parents are able to donate as much as they did forty years ago may be the rising expense of living.
Every fall, Chelsea Smith, a Casselberry-based copper etching artist, would display her work at the Winter Springs and Maitland festivals. Both have been canceled, and the final event will take place in Winter Springs in 2022.
Before showcasing her own artwork there as a teenager, Smith recalls attending the Maitland Art Festival as a child.She mentioned canceling it, not only for herself but also for the next generation, which devastated me.
In the past, the event collaborated with nearby schools to present professionals alongside middle and high school students who were artists. Smith is concerned that young artists today won’t receive the same level of encouragement that she did when she was their age.
“Seeing what I’ve been doing for 15 years, it’s kind of scary because it’s changed so much,” she added. It’s changing, dying, or vanishing.
According to Alice Moulton, president of the festival’s foundation, the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, which is bigger and more established than Maitland’s, is still operating properly.
The yearly Park Avenue sidewalk art display is organized by volunteers, just like Maitland’s festival.
Every March, the 67-year-old festival showcases roughly 215 performers.
According to Moulton, the Winter Park festival hasn’t yet suffered from the same lack of volunteers as Maitland.
According to her, there are only a few extremely seasoned board members left on our board. However, we constantly have a large number of new hires who are nervous and aggressive.
Usually, a large number of new members compete for the 40 organizer positions on the board. Moulton credits the festival’s ongoing popularity with fostering the community’s interest in the arts and earning it a national reputation.
John Lowndes, the mayor of Maitland, expressed regret about the cancellation of his city’s event, stating that he always enjoyed attending that festival. He blamed a crowded market for some of the event’s difficulties.
He claimed that when it first began, it was one of the most distinctive festivals in the area. These days, everyone has something to do every weekend.
The Rotary requested the City of Maitland to think about letting the club use the park for another fundraising event in the future in their letter to the city announcing the event’s cancelation, which was obtained by the Sentinel.
The message stated, “We hope the community will continue to support the Rotary Club of Maitland and our community projects, and we look forward to a new fundraiser in 2026.”
