Summer fest draws complaints

GARDEN CITY, Rich County (AP) — The Raspberry Days Festival draws thousands of people each summer to the Bear Lake area in northern Utah.

Critics said that's part of the problem.

"I would say do away with it," resident Lana Hodges said. "It has grown to where we get thousands and thousands of people, and our infrastructure can't handle it. ... Raspberry Days isn't for the locals. It is for the out-of-towners."

After a public hearing this week, the Garden City City Council voted to keep the festival, which is held the first weekend in August, but create a committee to keep a close eye on the event.

Bear Lake tourism director Judy Holbrook said ending Raspberry Days would destroy much of the tourism at a time when the lake usually is the warmest.

"If you discontinue this, I am going to have to discontinue my 1-800 number," she said.

The festival began in the early 1980s and attracts an estimated 40,000 people for dances, a craft fair, parade, entertainment and pancake breakfast.

The gripes: crowds, congestion, garbage and a lack of volunteers. Some businesses complain they must compete with food vendors.

Laraine Schnetzer, who has served as festival chair, said revenue was nearly $8,000 this year.

"There has not been a year that we had to subsidize," Mayor Ken Hansen said.

Schnetzer said the festival needs a new way to recruit volunteers.

"The job is getting bigger, but there is the same small pot of people doing it," council member Elizabeth Seiler said.