“There were some things that came up that we were not going to be able to pull off properly, the timing was pretty bad on our part,” Olathe Chamber of Commerce President Bob Beyer said. “We want to do it right because if we can’t do it right, we can’t do it at all.”
However, Beyer said Tuesday there was significant momentum and the timing was right. The event is sponsored by the chamber and would be the town’s first wine festival.
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“The chamber was the ones that pulled the plug,” Read said. “The way it was presented to me it was some things that were beyond their control and they would like to have more time to get it together.”
The chamber plans to meet Monday night to regroup and discuss the next steps, chamber member and Tuxedo Corn Company owner John Harold said.
Beyer said numerous factors affected the postponement.
“It’s a young chamber so there’s a lot of things — first off, money — just, it takes a fair amount of money for these kinds of things,” he said. “We have the money but just barely. We just think it’s a smarter decision to do things right.”
Olathe Activities Director Bobbi Sale said there had not been many ticket sales and it was beginning to appear it wouldn’t be up to the “Olathe standards.” The Olathe Sweet Corn Festival has risen to nationwide attention in 16 years, bringing in large crowds and such popular artists as Leann Rimes and Styx. Sale directs the corn festival and assisted the chamber with the wine festival.
Read said trying to kick off the wine festival near the end of September would have been difficult because of other regional events occurring near the same time. The 16th Colorado Mountain Winefest, a four-day event, occurred in the Grand Junction area last weekend.
In addition, Colors in Concert Over Montrose, Montrose High School homecoming and Paonia’s Mountain Harvest Festival are scheduled for the Sept. 28 to Sept. 30 weekend.
“It was getting to be a strain on food vendors,” Read said.
She also said the time of year can put a burden on regional wineries, as it’s grape crushing time. However, Read had spare time to work on the festival this year because a winter freeze resulted in a lighter harvest.
“Normally we would be up to our eyeballs,” she said. “This year we had a problem in the winter with split vines.”
Read said in the 13 years her winery has been in business, two have resulted in crop loss. The previous year, her winery’s crops prospered while those of areas farther north were damaged.
“Not all regions in Colorado seem to be hit at the same time. Sometimes it’s one way and sometimes the other.”
Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com
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