(WXYZ) — Pig & Whiskey organizers announced on social media Monday that this year’s Ferndale festival is canceled.
Watch Sarah Michals's video report:
The annual outdoor festival, which has been happening for over a decade in Ferndale, is a celebration of BBQ, whiskey, and music.
“The City of Ferndale has imposed increasing costs and restrictions on events, other than the Ferndale Dream Cruise, on an annual basis. Last month, the city passed a new round of potential costs and regulations that organizers, sponsors and stakeholding vendors feel would overly compromise their ability to put on this year’s event at a level they would be comfortable with,” the post read in part.
Today, we caught up with Chris Johnston, an organizer of the event, about the factors that led to the cancellation.
WATCH: Pig & Whiskey organizer Chris Johnston talks about this year's cancellation
"It was kind of years in the making, and it's, you know, it's not just one thing that led to that decision. Ultimately, the decision was that it was too much of a risk to take on with the way things are with the city of Ferndale and events right now," he said.
Johnston said some of the city's policies have made it difficult on the event. One of the biggest issues, he says, began 4 years ago, when the event had to stop playing music after 9 p.m.
"Even though the event itself could go until 11, but we found out the hard way that when the music stops, the event ends, and that really made it hard for all the people involved, all the vendors, all the artists to do well because people would leave when the music ended," said Johnston.
He added, "Lately there were more changes that were made that were supposed to be policies but could be regulations that will end up costing us more money, you know, we already pay for city police, fire, but, you know now, we would be paying for potentially paying for parking lot usage," he said.
Founder Chris Johnston's statement on his reasons for not holding Pig & Whiskey this year:
"To briefly highlight some crucial aspects I wouldn't want to be overlooked:
* I agree that food vendors should protect the parking lot surfaces, such as by using roofing paper.
* I support the encouragement of food vendors to utilize eco-friendly containers.
* Ensuring public safety at special events is paramount, and shortcuts should never be taken.
As a long-time Ferndale business owner and resident, my intention is not to come across negatively, despite current frustrations. These events have been passion projects for many involved for a long time. However, the current business model has become unsustainable, and recent changes adopted by the City of Ferndale through their updated Special Events Policies have led us to reconsider the risks associated with organizing an event of this scale and the high quality that our residents and attendees deserve. This has been an ongoing issue that has developed over several years.
To illustrate a key factor in our decision, both Pig & Whiskey and the DIY Street Fair heavily feature live music, which is a significant attraction for attendees and crucial for the financial viability of the events and their vendors. For many years, the music concluded at 11 PM on Sunday. However, four years ago, citing noise concerns (despite no noise violations or official complaints to the police department, with only a few informal complaints in ten years), the noise curfew was first moved to 10 PM and then to 9 PM the following year. Since these changes, we've observed that the event effectively ends when the music stops, significantly impacting vendor sales. These lost two hours could have helped offset the increasing costs imposed by the city on both events. Unfortunately, the Special Events Committee declined to even consider reinstating a single hour when requested via email last month, stating that such a change would need to be addressed by the City Council during the event approval process, likely only a month before the event, which is too late to assume that level of risk.
Furthermore, as mentioned, the city has recently implemented revisions to the special events guidelines that could result in charging events thousands of dollars for parking lot usage, based on the rationale of recouping lost parking revenue. While this might seem reasonable initially, historical data shows that city parking revenue, including parking ticket revenue, actually increases substantially during special event weekends.
The Special Events Committee aims for outside events (excluding the Dream Cruise) to operate at no cost to the city. While this goal is understandable, we believe it is neither realistic nor sustainable, a sentiment supported by the lack of such a successful model elsewhere. While we would also like this to be the case, we feel it overlooks the growing economic challenges faced by organizers, vendors, and attendees over the past five-plus years. Adding to these challenges are the closure of Woodward Avenue to one lane last summer and the closure of I-696 this year. We recognize that challenges are inherent, but it feels as though the city readily overlooks these while adding further burdens. That said we have never asked the city for financial support, only for the ability to move back the music curfew by an hour in order to potentially help all involved, which would add zero cost to the city.
As I mentioned to Ferndale City Council, I hope that they can work out these issues before long, as we need to make plans for this year's DIY Street Fair, which happens in September. When the city agreed to the latest revisions to the guidelines, council was reassured repeatedly that these were only guidelines and had flexibility. This was after their inital reluctance to agree to the new proposed guidelines. Michael Lary's email response to my request for flexibility shows that despite the reassurance, once in place the guidelines could easily be referred to as regulations and lose any chance of intended flexibility.
Best regards,
Chris"
7 News Detroit reached out to Ferndale City Manager Colleen O'Toole who tells us that the city has not substantially changed any of its regulations; she said there were changes related to how they treat patio zones, and that they also discussed parking space fees, but she said those fees haven’t been implemented.
"I was a little confused because from the city's perspective, really that event should be able to occur in substantially the same form that it occurred last year," said O'Toole.
She said the reason for the music timing change several years ago was due to complaints from neighboring residents.
Watch: Ferndale City Manager Colleen O'Toole talks about Pig & Whiskey cancellation and events in the city
"From city council's perspective, it's always about balancing the interests of both sides and making sure we have a fair compromise," she said.
O'Toole said that all events in Ferndale are held to the same standards.
"We wanted to make sure that the expectations were clear and consistent across the board for all special events that occurred, rather than organizers coming in and kind of having to learn as they go through the process, the guidebook is intended to be that one stop shop, all the information you need, what it's gonna take to host an event in Ferndale," she said.
She added, "I'd like to stress that all of the other event organizers we've talked to so far, seem to be working through these minor changes ... without issue, and I do hope that we can continue to do future activities with this organizer in the future."
O'Toole said she hopes they can find a way for Pig & Whiskey to continue in Ferndale.
Meanwhile, Johnston does have another event coming up in the city. The DIY Street Fair is still planned for September.
He shares that although he is considering taking the events to a different city, ideally, he'd love to keep them in Ferndale, but with some changes.
"We'd just like to discuss it and feel like we're heard and feel like collectively we're putting on an event that everyone feels good about," he said.
