After one of the most successful Festivals of Busselton ever last January, the Festival committee is in need of some community help if it is to deliver the event in 2020.
At the committee's annual general meeting last week, a number of key positions on the executive committee were left unfilled and other key positions were filled only on a temporary basis.
Outgoing president Bernie Masters is concerned that the next festival may not happen without more community support.
"The Festival of Busselton is always a community-based festival and, in past years, we have been able to call upon the Busselton community to help us when the workload needed some extra volunteers," he said.
"But the 2018 festival saw things change, with an increased administrative load placed on the shoulders of committee members, reducing the amount of time they were able to put into hosting events.
"But everything changed last year when we hired professional coordinators to take over almost all of the work associated with liaising with the City of Busselton, finding sponsors and applying for grants.
"The result was one of the best festivals ever, with new and more events than ever before.
"I am worried that the Busselton community now believes the festival can almost run itself, without much involvement of volunteers, but this is certainly not the case."
At present, the festival committee is still without a president or vice president for the 2020 festival and the secretary and treasurer positions are filled temporarily.
As outgoing president, Mr Masters is happy to assist a new president for several months to find his or her feet and get the planning underway for the next festival.
"The good news is the 2020 festival committee will be starting from a very strong financial position, thanks to the last festival running at a small profit and with several sponsors already committed to providing funds," he said.
"The festival committee would also benefit from some new community members to add to existing eight committee members.
"If you have ideas for new festival events or if you want to help plan and run an existing event, we'd love to hear from you."
Mr Masters is happy for people to contact him. His phone number is 0408 944 242 or email berniemasters@iinet.net.au.
