Short on staff, Dumfries cancels fall festival

Dumfries leaders canceled the town’s annual fall festival.

Mayor and Acting Town Manager Jerry Foreman said the town does not have enough staff to plan and execute the event that had been scheduled Oct. 15 at town hall. The annual event draws musicians, crafters, vendors, and food trucks to Dumfries.

Foreman said Community Services Director Brittany Heine, who is in charge of planning the festival, has been out on maternity leave. Other departments — many with only one person working in them — could not spare their time to help plan and execute the fall festival.

“Ms. Heine went on leave, though no fault of her own, and our staff is not big enough and is not wired, so to speak, to handle multiple events,” said Foreman.

The town this year had budgeted $4,000 for the event. Instead, Foreman said staff will focus on Christmas events that include:

Christmas Parade December 10
Christmas Tree Lighting December 10
Christmas in Dumfries at Triangle Rescue Squad December 17

“We’re stuck between a rock in a hard place,” said Dumfries Councilman Derrick Wood “To eliminate [the fall festival] for a year… that void for a year… would definitely have to come back stronger and better.”

Foreman added that town staff is focused “100 percent” on the Christmas events, and noted his disappointment in the lack of a fall festival to be held this year.

“We didn’t want to do this event and have it come out poorly,” he said.

Dumfries plans two outdoor festivals each year: a multicultural festival in spring and a fall festival in late September or October.