Not enough 'green' left after festival

PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Cold and rainy conditions put a big damper on profits for many at the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival.

Clean-up crews continued to work Monday after the end of the 10-day-long festival. The beautiful day came too late for the main event.

Rockville Coin and Collectibles co-owner Jon Bonomo Jr. said it was slow business overall. In fact, some weekdays the store did less business than they might do on a regular day, even with the festival being in town.

"The busiest day of the festival was the last day due to the nice weather" said Bonomo. "I think the weather hurt everyone."

The festival means almost everything budget-wise to the Riverton Parke Music Boosters. The festival sometimes provides more than $10,000 for traveling, uniforms and large instrument purchases. This year's profits down about 30 percent.

"We're going to have to be careful how we go, where we go and that kind of thing," said Riverton Parke Music Director Mike Hardesty. "Anything we spend money on through the Music Boosters, we have to be careful now."

One place that did do better this year was the Soup Shack run by Immanuel Southern Baptist Church. With hot soup and bread bowls on the menu it's not hard to guess why.

But it's going to be a little tighter budget for Hardesty this year.

"We've had off years before," said Hardesty. "We weathered the storm but we are going to have to do better, at least to build the reserves back up."

Festival organizers say the economy also may have played a factor in this year's festival. Many vendors said visitors to the festival still bought things, but fewer expensive items.

Next year's festival is scheduled for Oct. 8 to 17, 2010.