09/19/2025
Good Morning Everyone-
I've been waiting on posting this in the hopes that I may not need to, but after exhausting all my last efforts, and due to the sheer number of inquiries I'm getting about it - the time has come to announce that we will not be holding the annual Fall HarvestFest event.
The main reasons are lack of interest from downtown businesses to do events, and the lack of public interest in supporting it. Each year the number of businesses open to support it dwindled, which in turn lowered attendance to the event. Last year we had attendees upset after visiting Portland to find we only had 4-5 businesses open, and then proceeded to leave bad reviews for businesses and post negatively about Portland and the event. The low business participation in the event is simply hurting downtown more than it was helping at that point and a viable way forward for events like this no longer exist.
I made the event framework and materials available along with a transition plan to all businesses in Portland, and anyone (or any group) that wanted to take over the event and try to keep it going, in some fashion. I hoped someone with a fresh idea or a group with a large family based following would pick up the event and come up with a way to keep it alive. We had zero interest from anyone even inquiring about it, which left nobody to work with to transition it over to.
While I'm as sad as the next person that we will lose another family friendly event in town, there had to be desire from our businesses to host it, and enough supporters for the businesses to see traffic from it, and neither happened last year unfortunately.
I do see our downtown constantly evolving, and over time, we may be able to circle back to it and see if we have support to revive it in upcoming years as businesses and mindsets shift.
I have decided to instead focus that energy on the Christmas light show which attracts a multitude more visitors and injects exponentially more money into our local economy. Just like HarvestFest, the light show 'deLIGHTfully Portland' draws visitors from all over the state (some from out of state) and these visitors enjoy all that Portland has to offer while watching the show including patronizing our bars, restaurants, shops and businesses. Every business in town sees an enormous benefit during Light Show nights, and the project still maintains a lot of community and visitor interest. Last year we were voted #2 light show in Michigan, this year we stand a chance at that top spot.
As always, to keep events going (even the popular ones) it takes lots of people, participation, vision, sponsors and energy. We are always looking for volunteers for events. deLIGHTfully Portland desperately needs more help. Everything from pre-show organizing, show night hosts, admin help, social media help and sponsors. Events take teams of people to be successful. If you love the light show, and love having events in town, could you spare a few hours a month by volunteering to make some Christmas Magic? If so, please PM me. We need help with things from getting materials supplied, to help sequencing songs (you need a computer and basic computer skills for this) Every bit helps. I could use some high schoolers this year for costume positions, do you have a grinch at home that could do this? We have the costume, just need the people. All volunteers with all skills welcome and needed.
Event dates for light shows will be announced over the next few weeks. Due to demand- we are building a special show for Christmas Eve this year as well. I do want to express how much I hated to cancel HarvestFest as it is one of only a couple family events that remained in town, the decision was not taken lightly. We plan to focus that energy on the light show and try to make sure that's a sustainable event that doesn't suffer the same fate. Please help us assure that it remains successful and join us by helping a few hours if you can, I really appreciate it.
~tim
