Disappointment came Friday afternoon when the Board of Directors for the Highland Business Association in St. Paul canceled Highland Fest 2020.
The board said rising costs, low staffing, operational concerns, and aligning with their mission is why they choses to cancel the three-day event.
The cancellation ends what's been a run of 35-plus years and a summertime staple for St. Paul residents, including James Farnsworth, the Highland Business Association Interim Executive Director.
"I can't remember doing anything else mid-July over the hottest weekend of the month for the last six years of my involvement with the festival," Farnsworth said.
Unforeseen costs from the City of Saint Paul for policing the event and being ineligible for the Cultural STAR grant hampered efforts to hold this year's festival according to Farnsworth.
"Policing the 2019 event was around $9,000 and the City gave us a preliminary cost of nearly $25,000 to have police officers at the 2020 festival," he said. "With costs being nearly triple from a year ago, we knew it'd be cost-prohibitive to be able to put on the event."
The policy change involved hiring on-duty police officers for festivals over off-duty police officers. Costs associated with the on-duty officers include paying overtime wages, which festivals must pay.
"It was explained to us that it was about liability and thinking it about as a direct city subsidy," Farnsworth said. "If the city was going to help with that and make an exception, it'd have to be built into the city budget, which it isn't right now."
Moving forward, Farnsworth hopes to work with the City of Saint Paul and the Saint Paul Festival Association to change the policy.
"This policy could have a lot of unintended consequences for other festivals in Saint Paul, which would be unfortunate to see," he said.
There are no current plans to revive the festival for 2021.