Beech Tree News Network

At last week's meeting of the Morgantown City Council, Mayor Linda Keown, as well as various members of the Council, rightly called the 2013 Green River Catfish Festival a success despite the havoc caused by four days of rain.  While we recognize some of the shortcomings of this year's Festival, we tend to agree with that assessment.  What we don't agree with is the suggestion that the Festival needs to be moved to a different date or shortened to a 1-2-day event.  Either of these changes, we believe, could significantly weaken the Festival to the point of extinction.

Let's state the obvious.  The 2012 Festival wasn't great … the heat was brutal and the fireworks flopped.  Meanwhile, the 2013 Festival also had its problems — primarily that it rained for days and vendors were scarce.  Of course, organizers and the broader community should look critically at the Festival and continue seeking ways to make improvements, while understanding that Mother Nature can lay waste to even the best-made plans.  Translated … we can't control the weather but the weather, to a large extent, can and does control the Festival.  

Looking at the Green River Catfish Festival through a long-range lens and the proper perspective suggests there has always been an ebb and flow when it comes to the event's success.  There are good years and really good years; bad years and really bad years; and plenty in between.  This is to be expected.  

There is a difference between warranted critical analysis and throwing the baby out with the bath water.  We fear some city and Chamber officials might be getting close to heading to the door with pan in hand when it comes to the annual Green River Catfish Festival.  We hope they'll take a deep breath and relax.

A shorter format would make rainouts even more problematic.  If you have a one or two-day Festival and it rains for two days, what do you have left?  Nothing.  A 3-4 day Festival at least gives you a chance for a couple good days.  

Also, moving the event away from the 4th of July would essentially be an admission of defeat, make it harder for vendors to do well financially, pose potential scheduling conflicts with other community and school events, and would be a retreat from a long-standing community tradition.  Yes, sometimes traditions need to be scrapped to make way for the new but we don't believe this is one of those times.

We commend the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, the City of Morgantown, and the many volunteers for their work on behalf of the community to pull off another Catfish Festival.  It isn't easy work.  We are also glad that Mayor Keown stated clearly that there will be a Catfish Festival in 2013.  Now, after a pause for reflection and perspective, we hope city and Chamber officials will step up and keep the Festival where it belongs — the Fourth of July - and not shorten it to the point where it is no longer a festival.  Our community deserves better.