Muskegon Cancels 2012 Fest

A long-running festival in Muskegon, Mich., has canceled its 2012 edition following mounting losses over the past two years.

The board that oversees the 19-year-old Muskegon Summer Celebration announced the cancellation Oct. 27, telling the Muskegon Chronicle the decision to pull the plug was “extremely agonizing.”

Members of the board have apparently been weighing whether to kill the event since last year when an air show and concert offerings suffered slow ticket sales.

In efforts to reinvent the fest this summer, the board canned the air show, shortened the event to nine days, kept ticket prices low and booked concerts that included Black Stone Cherry, Sugar Ray, Skillet, Aaron Lewis and Michelle Branch, the paper said.

The fest still failed to break even.

“We looked at different plans and ideas to move forward, but didn’t feel we could overcome past debt,” festival chair Bryon Mazade told the Chronicle.