The festival had traditionally kicked off the city’s Summer Sounds concert series, and those shows fell by the wayside, along with the recreation department that funded them.
The festival combined a motorcycle ride in the county with a blues concert in Middletown.
“The city pulled the rug out from underneath the event by eliminating its parks and recreation department,” said Shawnda Combs, the event’s primary organizer.
“I didn’t have the money to do a blues concert on top of the ride portion because the city always did the blues concert part,” Combs said.
Combs has been contemplating simply having some kind of motorcycle ride, but that is uncertain.
The bike ride raised thousands of dollars for the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities over the years.
The city axed its recreation department in January in an effort to balance the city’s budget.
Abby Ison, the former head of the parks and recreation department, had said the budget for this year was going to be $114,000, whereas it had once been $1.5 million.
The elimination of the recreation events marks the fading away of another Middletown summer event, following the folding of the Independence Day festival All-American Weekend in 2006.
Sunset Pool was open last year but is now closed indefinitely.
However, the city does still have summer events such as the MidFirst Ohio Challenge in July and the Broad Street Bash every other Wednesday.
That said, Blues and Bikes will be missed, Combs said.
“There’s been a lot of public outcry about the event. I’ve been mailed, called and bombarded. ... I know we made an impact, and I know it was a good thing.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.
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