By Sarah Lombardo
Saratoga may be suffering from too much of a good thing. Citing the number of festivals already scheduled for this summer, the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce announced last week that it would not be sponsoring the Blossom Festival this year.
Pat Andreson, Chamber president, said the decision was made when trying to set a date for the festival.
"The time slot we thought was appropriate would be May, and we have the Rotary Art Show and now the Strawberry Festival," said Andreson. "That would make three festivals in the span of a month. We felt it would be better to not have [the Blossom Festival] this year."
This will be the third year without the Blossom Festival, which dates back to the early 1900s. Marilyn White was chairwoman of the committee organizing the event for years. But when she stepped down, she said, no one else stepped up.
"There were no takers when I decided not to do it anymore," White said.
White said the now-disbanded Village Association held the festival for a few years, but when the association ended, the Blossom Festival was left without a sponsor.
"It just kills me that we can't keep [the festival] going," said White. "It's a shame that some organization couldn't take it over."
White said she was happy when she heard that the Chamber of Commerce was looking into the possibility of taking on the festival, but acknowledged that one of the reasons no one wants to pick up the festival is that "there is too much going on."
"People are kind of burned out," she said.
Kookie Fitzsimmons, owner of Corinthian Flowers in the Village, said she also felt the Blossom Festival had too much competition.
"I think there has been such an explosion of art and wine festivals that it became just another festival," she said. "I think all the festivals just kind of diluted each other."
Fitzsimmons said the effort needed for so many festivals also had an effect on the Chamber's decision and the Blossom Festival's trouble in finding a sponsor. "It was just a lot of labor to put an event like that together, and no single merchant or group has the time to devote to that," she said.
Both White and Fitzsimmons said they thought that if the Strawberry Festival had not moved to Saratoga from Los Gatos, the Blossom Festival would have had a better chance. According to White, the two festivals were often held on the same weekend and visitors would attend one after the other in the same day.
Andreson said it was not an easy decision for Chamber members to not bring back the festival, but that they might take another look at the issue again next year.
"It was a really hard decision. We did a lot of soul-searching, and it wasn't just a one-person decision," Andreson said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 12, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.