DogFest, Union Centre Blvd. Blast not happening this summer

Food and Music Festival info

WEST CHESTER TWP. — Summer is going to be a little less eventful in West Chester Twp. after the cancellation or rescheduling of two popular events.

DogFest and the Union Centre Boulevard Blast, formerly known as the Union Centre Boulevard Bash, are no more, at least for the summer of 2011.

“The Blast has been renamed and moved to October ... We have taken it over ourselves to produce,” said Robert Fischer, former president of the Union Centre Blvd. Merchant Association.

Last year, the Merchant Association hired an event organizer, Hague Atkinson of byDesign Productions. Now, the association is renaming and revamping the event, and doing it without the help of an event organizer. The new event will be the Food and Music Festival.

“This has more community involvement,” said Jillian Kelley, event co-chair and volunteer.

Kelley said the Merchant Association’s mission is to “promote the business district and encourage new people to visit our community.”

“As we all know, West Chester was ranked in the top 50 for ‘Best Places to Live’ so we want a perfect weekend destination for families, groups of friends and businesses,” she said.

This year, the focus of the Food and Music Festival is in the name, and will be less like a festival, as there won’t be amusement rides.

“We want to do something different in the fall so we’re not competing with other festivals,” she said, citing area church festivals.

The event, previously conducted in August, will now be Oct. 14 and 15, with beer, food and live music. Along with competition from church festivals, Kelley also cited the hot August weather as the reason for the new fall dates.

More than a decade after it started, DogFest has been canceled for 2011.

“The event got so big, it needs several shelters to go in together,” said Marty Davis, a volunteer for DogFest.

PAWS, a no-kill shelter in Middletown, has previously put on the event. But the event “grew out of control,” and as Paws had a list of other things to deal with, such as building a new shelter, an almost entire new board and new employees, putting on the “huge” event was too much for the small shelter.

“There were never enough volunteers ... It’s possible they (PAWS) could be involved again. But to get the number of volunteers you need on the day of the event, there needs to be more than one rescue or planner,” Davis said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 483-5237 or kcano@coxohio.com.