九色视频

According to the festival鈥檚 Executive Director Deena Kilmon, more than just the future of the festival is at stake. Without expected funding, the maintaining the historic armory building, continuing the William A. Perry Scholarship Program, and fundraising for wildlife and habitat conservation are uncertain, Kilmon said.

The festival, one of Talbot County鈥檚 largest economic drivers, has been in operation since 1971.

鈥淲e had independent auditors tell us that about 30,000 people were downtown during the festival last year,鈥� Kilmon said. 鈥淵ou have the thousands of community residents that just enjoy all the free stuff, you know, the music and the parties, and then we have about a thousand volunteers that come over, which includes about 200 student volunteers every year.鈥�

According to Kilmon, last year鈥檚 festival filled all the hotels in Talbot County and three surrounding counties. 鈥淓very restaurant was full Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. No one had any room anywhere, so we don鈥檛 know the ultimate economic impact, but we know it鈥檚 large,鈥� she said.

The Waterfowl Festival applied for several grants this year in fear federal and state art funding gets cut.

Those grants include the Maryland Historic Trust Grant to target crucial repairs on the Armory building, fix ADA accessibility issues, and simply maintain the historic building that hosts nonprofit organizations for a small fee and is open to the public at no cost.

Easton Mayor Megan Cook said it鈥檚 important for the Waterfowl Festival to remain in the town and she would like to keep the organization as the steward to the building.

鈥淚t would be great to keep them in the Armory because that building anchors our downtown, and since it is such a community space, it鈥檚 important to keep it open to the community,鈥� Cook said.

鈥淲aterfowl have been the stewards of that building for a number of years, they take great care of it. You know, it would be a tragedy, a true loss for the town if that building went dark,鈥� Cook later said.

The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority grant would allow the Waterfowl Festival to re-open the stage and host even more artists and speakers.

鈥淭hose are all the things we would love to do if we could bring the building up to modern safety standards,鈥� said Kilmon. 鈥淏ut again, that鈥檚 outside of our mission of supporting conservation and wildlife habitats across the nation. That鈥檚 what we do for real, but this is just something that we feel like as stewards of the building, it鈥檚 the right thing to do.鈥�

The festival will learn about its state and federally funded grants by the end of the fiscal year in June. In the meantime, Waterfowl Festival staff are preparing to make changes.

Currently, children do not have to pay to attend the festival or participate in many activities like soap carving and the fishing derby. That may change if the grants are not awarded.

The festival has raised over $6 million for conservation and wildlife preservation over the years and supported secondary education for student volunteers known as 鈥渄uck sitters.鈥� Last year, the festival raised $24,000 for scholarships, awarding each student $2,000.

Kilmon said a one-year deficit would not kill the festival, but if it continued, they鈥檇 have to take extra measures.

鈥淵ou know, we鈥檇 have to start, I hate the word downsizing, but what I鈥檒l say is, making the footprint of the festival smaller, right? And offering less free opportunities for education,鈥� Kilmon said.