Save Local Vendors at Band Fest - Mason City, Iowa

It has come to our attention that the Mason City Chamber of Commerce and the Directors of Band Fest, don't want to deal with local vendors, who have spent 16+ years with great service, great prices, & no complaints, for a bigger company from Wisconsion.

In the Mason City Chamber's Mission Statement on their official website, it states: "The mission of the Mason City Chamber of Commerce is to promote progressive economic and community development to enhance our quality of life."

If this is really so, don't you think it would be better to keep the local vendors in Band Fest? Keeping the money in the community? Help each other out, instead of dropping them from the list for something bigger?

In a statement in the Mason City Globe Gazette on Friday May 5th, 2006:
"Instead of dealing with a lot of individual vendors, the Band Festival committee has hired a single company All Star Foods of Hudson, Wis. to run all the food stands during the celebration at East Park on Memorial Day weekend."

"Hiring All Star Foods also eliminates a lot of headaches for the festival organizers because the company will take care of things such as insurance, contacting food inspectors and disposing of used cooking oil." said Robin Anderson, Director of the Mason City Chamber of Commerce.

Well, if you want to make things easier, you could always let someone else do the work, that actually knows what would be best for the community of Mason City. Always think of the public's concerns and comments about the idea.

This is a patition to keep the local vendors at Band Fest for years to come, as well as a patition to listen to the community's comments, suggestions & concerns before acting on something like this.