Ayer’s Cliff music festival to grant one last wish
The 24th edition of the Ayer’s Cliff music festival was a resounding hit, raising a whopping $33 000 for the Children’s Wish foundation this year alone, and granting little 4-year-old Zoé, from Magog, a wish of her choice. The celebrations were somewhat dampened after the Mackeys, who have been organizing the hit event of the summer since its beginning, announced that the 25th edition will be its last.
“It’s very emotional for us, especially me and my daughter. I’ll miss it, it’s been our life,” said Chrissie Mackey. “It’s like a divorce, you know? You feel it coming down the line and it just feels… yucky.”
Mackey explained that though the event is still as busy as ever, she and her family are running out of energy to organize and follow-through with the event. A substantial issue lies in the available manpower needed to bring the Music Fest to life.
“This year was the best turn out so far. We had over 130 campers out there. It was beautifully full, it was a beautiful weekend, but it’s getting a bit daunting,” she said. “Peter and I, we were only 28 and 26 when it all started, and we were already tired after it was done back then. Now we’re not 28 and 26 anymore.”
“It’s very difficult. We start planning early in spring and it’s just become too much work. Before the week of the event, it’s just me. I do the paperwork; my family helps in every way they can. My kids can’t even remember a time before the Music Fest. It’s so time consuming,” continued Mackey. “It’s a very large event. We have 80 volunteers, and the week of the Fest, everyone comes through, they know what to do, they’re fantastic; but 65% of our volunteers are older than we are, and when it comes to hauling tables, setting up the floor, hauling fences, carpets… They push and give their best, but we worry.”
“We’ve talked about it a lot as a family, but we just don’t know what’s best. We thought of maybe cutting down in certain areas, but it’s for the children. We don’t want to take anything away from them.”
Last year, the Mackeys were happy to see that many younger volunteers stepped up to the table to help with the music festival, but unfortunately, she said it hasn’t been enough.
“Some older people started to step down, so we want to recruit younger volunteers, but there isn’t enough and when people start not showing up, we get spread too thin,” she said. “Just last year one of our older volunteers said: ‘All of us volunteers rotate and tap out when we’re tired, you guys are only two and you’re always there’. Man, we’re feeling it now. We don’t just do what we have to do, we fill in whatever else needs doing. Even if you delegate, you can’t be sure.”
“I don’t want to say nothing less of the volunteers, they’re amazing,” clarified Mackey. “I’m not complaining, it just takes more than what most people assume, I think. We just can’t keep asking this tremendous amount of work from our volunteers.”
Mackey added that she and her husband had been thinking of stopping the music fest this year, but they decided that one last edition was necessary, at the very least as a means of saying goodbye.
“We don’t want to back down. My son, Devon, was thinking of taking it up with his wife, but there’s so much work and he’s just not seeing anyone coming as reinforcements.what really is stopping all of us is the fear that it will all fall apart. We’re quitting while we’re ahead,” she explained.
“A lot of our volunteers come from afar,” she added. “After all these years we’ve grown really close. The music fest is the only time we get to see them. It didn’t seem right not saying thank you or goodbye before everything ended.”
Besides her personal attachment to the music fest, the real thing about giving up the music festival that hurts Mackey is the fact that there will no longer be an annual wish for sick children.
“We don’t know what this year’s wish is, because our wish child this year, Zoé, recently had a stroke. It’s messing with her brain, her vision. They’re taking it day to day. I have such admiration for her mother, she was so up-beat,” said Mackey. “We lost a wish child in February, she was from Ayer’s Cliff. The thing is that there will be more sick kids. We need to raise money locally to help local children, I don’t think many people realize that.”
“Sunday was so beautiful, when we gave Zoé her wish. You know, it’s when I see a grown man’s man in the crowd, one of our volunteers who’s been hauling all day, and he puts on his sunglasses and puts his head down and that’s when you know: he knows why we do this. He gets it. I wish the younger population would see that.”
“I’m going to miss it, it’s a part of me,” said Mackey. “I want to help these kids always, but the facts are the facts. As of right now, just give us this year, and we’ll see.”