Port Hueneme--After an extended discussion, the City Council voted Monday, May 5, to place the Port Hueneme Beach Festival on hold for 2023 and devise a plan to hold a smaller free event for the community.
The issue at hand is charging admission to the Festival and the City’s financial obligation if it doesn’t meet its revenue goals.
Economic Development Consultant Steve Kinney with REACH presented the item and said changes were made to the budget during the last meeting.
“If your preference is not to have the full Beach Festival as is laid out in this budget, that’s fine; I don’t have any objection to that,” he said.
Council Member Martha R. McQueen-Legohn said he planned to do a market analysis on the attendance and feasibility, and she wanted to know what Kinney would be looking for.
“It seems conceptually to me that rather than relying on someone’s or some group’s best guess if there is time to approach the whole issue more methodically and empirically, it’s possible to do sample surveys in the community and test the market almost if it was a commodity to get the reaction of our community,” Kinney said. “If the Festival was held…
