Sandpoint Must Rally For Festival

Incredibly, Sandpoint businesses and residents are bellyaching about plans by the Festival at Sandpoint to shift half its concerts to Kootenai County next year.

Where were these boo-birds when festival director Connie Berghan hunted vainly for support to keep the festival at Sandpoint’s Memorial Field? Where were they when a handful of loud, angry neighbors persuaded the City Council to evict the festival from its lakeshore setting after the 1997 season? Where were they when Berghan and other organizers were breathing life back into the festival after years of red ink?

If Sandpoint wants to keep the festival, it should pull together (for a change), quit its whining and do everything possible to save it.

That means the next mayor and his new City Council must end the hand-wringing and fence-sitting of the present council and make the festival a top priority. And merchants, upset that the festival board has made a shrewd business decision, should quit looking for scapegoats and help organizers find an acceptable alternative site.

The festival is a treasure and should be treated like one.

Sometimes, it seems that the concert series is appreciated more by outsiders than by Sandpoint residents. Many of us beyond the city limits have fond memories of listening to B.B. King, Johnny Cash and others entertain with the moon rising over Lake Pend Oreille in the background.

But Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls also offer waterfront settings. It makes no difference to us outsiders if the Beach Boys harmonize about surfer girls at Memorial Field in Sandpoint, Q’Emiln Park in Post Falls or City Park in Coeur d’Alene. For many, a Kootenai County site and a short trip on Interstate 90 might be preferable to a 90-minute drive to Sandpoint.

As matters stand, Kootenai County communities gladly will take half the concerts. Or more. Surely, Kootenai County businesses will appreciate the visitor dollars shipped south to them by their shortsighted Bonner County neighbors.

Sandpoint doesn’t seem to realize that it needs the festival more than the festival needs Sandpoint. The festival provides not only an economic boost but also an antidote for the bad publicity caused by Mark Fuhrman’s arrival and the Ruby Ridge shootout.

If the festival is lost, Sandpoint residents have themselves to blame - not Berghan or any of the others who have made the event work all these years despite community apathy and even strident opposition.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board