$100,000<\/a><\/strong> year after year because that feels like it\u2019s beyond where we can be.\u201d<\/p>\nFormer festival director Bruce Figler, who was at the meeting, was more positive about a 2026 music festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was a one off and unlikely to happen that way again. If we get good weather I\u2019m thinking that we come close to breaking even,\u201d Figler said. \u201cI\u2019m not guaranteeing that we can get $40-50,000 in the black but I think that breaking even is something that can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Figler was joined by Sue and Dave Harmon, long-time supporters and festival organizers. Festival director Doug Panero attended the meeting online.<\/p>\n
One crucial unknown is the continued support of the festival\u2019s biggest sponsors, Northwell Health and Captain Lawrence Brewing Company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have to reach out to determine whether our presenting sponsor, Northwell, is in the game again,\u201d said Scherer. \u201cHopefully they are. Unless we have that level of support at least, there\u2019s no way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board member Paul Alvarez asked if the festival could run on a lower budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Northwell might not give us as much as they have in the past, could the festival run on a lower budget?\u201d Alvarez asked. \u201cCould it be cut 25 percent?\u201d<\/p>\n
Figler suggested cutting the budget would create a very different festival because it would mean hiring fewer known bands. The cost of hiring talent has been escalating and is the festival\u2019s major expense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe festival would totally disappoint people who have been coming out for the last 10 years and who expect to see name bands,\u201d Figler said. \u201cEvery time you cut the budget you lessen the bands and lessen the turnout.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other music festivals are also seeing how expensive high-profile bands have become, Figler observed.<\/p>\n
\u201cFestivals are finding that it\u2019s too expensive and they are going away,\u201d he said. \u201cBands are starting to see that there are less venues to perform at because they have priced themselves out of the market. The pendulum is swinging.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 music festival will be the 20th anniversary, which could be a marketing advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we marketed it as perhaps the last year it may have some horse power,\u201d Scherer said.<\/p>\n
Sue Harmon agreed that celebrating the festival\u2019s anniversary would be a positive move.<\/p>\n
\u201cCapitalizing on the 20th year is a big win for our town,\u201d Harmon remarked. \u201cI\u2019d also like to see if we do move forward that we can capitalize on more local sponsorship and get more of our town involved. Why don\u2019t we get a little more support from people and the businesses in our village? It\u2019s the smaller sponsorships that goes a long way and it really shows the whole village is together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board member David Vinjamuri suggested that a smaller revenue loss might be manageable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a $50,000 loss when the weather is sketchy is acceptable assuming there are years where the weather is not sketchy and we are neutral and we are making money,\u201d Vinjamuri said. \u201cThat\u2019s my personal opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vinjamuri added that if the festival has what he called a negative outcome, he would not support the festival going forward.<\/p>\n
If the board ultimately decides to support going ahead with a 2026 festival, they will likely pass a resolution during December to solidify a festival budget line in the 2026 fiscal budget, which starts in July. Once a resolution is passed, festival organizers can start booking bands.<\/p>\n
Figler reminded the board how successful the 2019 festival was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw what happened in 2019 where we turned a nice tidy profit. I think that can happen again,\u201d Figler said. \u201cThings were tried this year that may or may not have worked very well. But I believe if we put the right bands on the line up you will get the people in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theexaminernews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Village officials are weighing whether the 20th music festival next year could be the last. By Abby Luby If the village decides to hold the next Pleasantville Music Festival in July 2026, it will be the 20th anniversary of the popular event. But there are many \u201cifs.\u201d Village board members seemed to favor going ahead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2177921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2177920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Could-a-20th-Pleasantville-Music-Festival-Be-the-Last.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177920"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177922,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177920\/revisions\/2177922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2177921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}