INNISFAIL - The immensely successful Feast On Main is coming back for another community serving.
In fact, organizers, led by Innisfail Town Theatre (ITT), have already picked Aug. 17, 2019 as the date for the second annual Main Street culinary celebration. Next year's Feast On Main date was chosen at the organizing committee's wrap-up meeting on Aug. 28.
More importantly this year's inaugural Aug. 18 long table event, which was sold out with 132 dinner guests, raised more than $10,000 for the arts community.
"We were going to be ecstatic if we reached $10,000, so we are ecstatic," said Coun. Glen Carritt, vice- president of ITT and one of council's representatives on the organizing committee. "It was fantastic, not one single complaint. Everybody really enjoyed the evening. Fun was had by all."
Carritt noted the committee will be helping Joy's School of Dance with a "really good kick" from this year's fundraising for its planned dance trip to Disneyland. He said the exact amount has not yet been determined.
He said the date selection of next year's Feast On Main will mean there will be far more time to make the event even better.
"We are hoping to get a few more sponsors. We had some great sponsor donations this year and we are hoping to get a couple more and that will raise that much more money for the arts," said Carritt.
While Feast On Main was seen by some in the community as too expensive for many Innisfailians, Carritt was quick to point out that it was an important fundraiser for financially challenged non-profit arts groups and that it was in fact inclusive.
"That is unfortunately how we have to raise the money," said Carritt. "We had all kinds of sponsors and people wanting to sponsor. We just didn't have the time to get around and make sure they were there.
"The community involvement was huge," he added, noting the inaugural Feast On Main had the support of more than 40 volunteers. "We had 25 people from Joy's School of Dance, the fire department and all kinds of people helping out. It was a great community event."
In the meantime, the town as a whole will benefit from its first Feast On Main as it puts the community "on the map" with other Alberta municipalities who have also hosted major first-rate long table events.
"It was noted to be one of the better ones that people went to and we will continue to grow on that," said Carritt. "It was fantastic."
