Shelbyville Bears of Blue River Festival ends after 35 years

In a letter, the Board of Directors wrote, “This decision was not made without careful thought and consideration.”

Bob Williams, vice president of the committee, said several factors played a role in the decision.

“Four of our directors, three of which were officers, resigned due to personal and employment issues. It was a tough decision to come to. We spent a whole month looking at possibilities and decided it was too daunting a task to try to continue,” Williams said.

In its letter, the Board of Directors cited “very little support from downtown merchants.”

“We had very little support from our downtown merchants, who we tried to get involved and help support. Our corporate donations have been harder to get as time goes on. The attendance of the the public has been dwindling, as we have seen with other public events. Our mobile stage is getting old and will need to have major repairs, or replacement soon. Our food vendors have dwindled, due to shortening of the festival days and smaller attendance. Our carnival ride provider went out of business and we have been unable to get one to take his place,” the letter states.

There was a notion of moving it to the Shelby County Fairgrounds, something the committee said was not an option.

“We do not entertain moving the festival to the fairgrounds as the whole reason the festival originated 35 years ago was to celebrate the downtown area,” Connie Moore, treasurer for the festival, said after last year’s event.