Schulenburg Festival Plans To Carry On

The Schulenburg Festival Association hopes to move forward with this year’s “National Party of Texas,” scheduled to take place July 31 to Aug. 2.

Festival President Mike Zweschper told the Schulenburg City Council on Monday that the Association has made contingency plans due to the coronavirus. One of those contingencies involves shortening the event to one or two days.

“Our goal would be to move forward with the Festival with the understanding that a rise in cases could alter that,” Zweschper said.

Zweschper said the Festival will most likely cancel the Nashville headliner performance for Friday night. The Festival has not yet announced the entertainment lineup, but those acts have already been booked. Zweschper said the Friday night Nashville headliner concert would cost the Association about $26,000.

“It’s very difficult to break even on Friday night, and with so many unknowns, it would be irresponsible for us to move forward with that act,” he said. “Will likely cancel the headliner for Friday.”

“People are wanting to get out, and who's playing is not as critical,” Zweschper added.

Councilman Larry Veselka raised a concern about the Festival bringing a wave of coronavirus cases to Schulenburg just weeks before school starts.

“Suppose this brings something in to the community, will it affect the school year?” Veselka asked.

“The last thing I want is to have the event and then have a surge in cases in Schulenburg,” Zweschper said.

However, he said the Association does not want to cancel the event prematurely.

“Bars are opening at 25 percent of capacity, lots of things are changing,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll pass over this in two months. Lots of businesses benefit from the Festival that weekend, and it’s a large source of revenue for local non-profits.”

Veselka also asked how a total cancellation would affect the Festival’s scholarship program. The Association gives out thousands of dollars in scholarships to local youth each year who compete for those scholarships by selling tickets to the Festival.

“It will not affect scholarships already earned,” Zweschper said. “That money is not used for operating expenses. We will not default on those payments if we don’t have this year’s festival.”

City Administrator Tami Walker raised a concern about the extra amount of garbage generated by coronavirus precautions at the Festival, such as vendors using gloves and masks. Additionally, vendors may not allow customers to reuse cups. Zweschper said the Festival could rent a large roll-off container to handle the extra garbage.

Council had budgeted for a $45,000 contribution to the Festival from the City’s hotel occupancy tax fund. Council voted unanimously Monday to move forward with the contribution. Zweschper said the Festival would not request a check until a few days before the event.

Also at Monday’s meeting, Council discussed the fate of the unused portion of the contribution the City made for the Schulenburg Sausagefest, which was cancelled last month due to the coronavirus pandemic. The City had granted the Sausagefest $18,000 in hotel occupancy tax funds.

Chamber Executive Director Marcia Hrncir reported that the Chamber spent about $1,460 on advertising before the event was cancelled. In addition, she said the Chamber paid the entertainment headliner, Jarrod Birmingham, a 50 percent deposit of $1,250. That left about $15,280 in unused funds. She said the Chamber would allow Birmingham to keep the deposit as a down payment on a performance at next year’s Sausagefest.

“Whatever you want us to do with (the remaining funds) is fine,” Hrncir said.

Council unanimously voted to request that the Schulenburg Chamber of Commerce return the unused funds.