The Executive Director of the Fulton County Chamber of Commerce, Diane Spore, and the organization’s Board of Directors met yesterday, to discuss the future of the Round Barn Festival.

With thousands of dollars in electrical upgrades and repairs to the information booth necessary, declining attendance, and the negative financial impact to downtown businesses, the result was a unanimous vote “to forego hosting the Round Barn Festival in the future.”

During six to eight months out of the year, some sort of preparation is made for the weekend event, using a lot of time and resources by the two person chamber staff and board. The Chamber leadership wants to take these resources and put them toward more business-oriented programs and events that are beneficial to the community.

According to Spore, “We have also listened to our members and the special concerns from our downtown retailers about the negative financial impacts of the festival on their individual businesses. We are taking the action necessary to alleviate that burden and to better align with our mission “to have supportive partnerships” with our members.”

Spore said the decision to end the festival was a very difficult one for the board. “We want to be the best possible stewards of our members’ chamber dues. We’ve been struggling to support this event for a few years now and at some point the negatives outweighed the positives. The community, and many of our board members, have great memories of this event. The chamber extends our sincere appreciation to those who founded the festival and to those who helped make it a success over the years.”

Some of the Chamber’s current business-focused programs include hosting legislative breakfasts to keep the public informed on what is happening at the state house and the effects to local businesses; the Leadership Academy, which serves to stimulate, develop, promote and mentor community leaders; Business After Hours events, which are networking and promotional opportunities held at member businesses; the Chamber banquet, an annual event honoring the community service award recipients and presentation of business awards; ribbon cuttings and coming soon; networking luncheons and educational opportunities.

The Chamber will continue to host the annual Chili Cook Off and Red Hot Car Show. The 2014 event is set to take place in the streets of downtown Rochester on Saturday, Oct. 11, and teams are currently forming. This event features some of Fulton County’s very own businesses and service groups that serve our local community.