Several volunteers at work during Hog Days to fill pork chop sandwich orders. The committee is out thousands of dollars after Sara Lee raised the bun prices unexpectedly. [Photo by Susan DeVilder]

Love it or hate it, the annual Hog Days festival over Labor Day weekend does draw the crowds and with those crowds comes a boost to the local economy.

Executive Director of the Kewanee Chamber of Commerce, Mark Mikenas, said the economic windfall of the festival is felt by a large number of retailers and businesses.

“We definitely know there’s an impact. You can tell by the traffic that comes through town. More people,” he said, “means more spending.”

Mikenas said convenient stores and gas stations in the area, as well as restaurants and bars, especially those downtown close to the carnival, were the main recipients of the boost.

“Is it going to be every business?” He said. “No. But I know that restaurants gear up for the weekend. Restaurants in and around the festival definitely have an increase.”

Mikenas said that a majority of businesses welcome the arrival of Hog Days each year, and some businesses count the surge in their annual sales plans and budgets. While Mikenas, himself, has no way to track the economic impact of the Labor Day weekend, he has heard from local businesses that they do rely on the festival for revenue.

While not all businesses are directly affected, just drawing crowds to town may make for future customers. People don’t come to town to buy furniture or cars over the weekend, he said, but they may stop into retail stores, see something they want and return.

In spite of the large crowds this weekend, Larry Flannery, co-chair of the event, said that this year didn’t surpass the previous few years in revenue when after COVID restrictions were lifted, people rushed to partake in the festivities.

“It was not record breaking,” Flannery said, “but after so many record breaking years, we are still pleased.”

This year, the festival’s carnival concessions brought in about $500 less than last year. The pork barbeque sales were down about $1000 from last year, he said.

Even with those revenue decreases, Flannery said Hog Days 2023 was successful and after all the bills are paid, there will be money left in the bank to prove it.

To fund the festival each year, the committee needs $150,000 to pay the bills and for seed money for the next year. Some of the Hog Days expenses, such as deposits, are required early on in the new year. After everything is paid for, Flannery said he expects to see a bank balance of around $30,000 to $35,000. But that amount would have been higher if it weren’t for an issue with the buns that ended up costing the festival double.

Flannery said that over the decades, the committee has formed solid relationships with their vendors, and business deals have been done by a handshake. But after this year, he said, he may need to change the way he does business with certain vendors.

The committee uses Sara Lee Bakery Company in Rockford as their bun supplier. The price, Flannery said, was negotiated with a company representative for 20 cents a bun, an increase of seven cents a bun from last year.

“We could absorb that. It wouldn’t be a problem,” said Flannery.

But because of the cost increase and the committee’s determination not to raise sandwich prices, Flannery cut the bun order by 2,000 buns.

“We usually have a lot of buns left over every year anyway,” he said, adding that the leftover buns are given away to different organizations in town such as the food pantry.

But when the buns were delivered, Flannery said he had sticker shock. They were expecting a delivery of 20 cent buns and 2,000 fewer. Instead, they received the extra buns and a bill for over $7,000 with a price increase of 35 cents per bun, 15 cents more than the negotiated price.

There was little they could do but pay the bill. They had already begun to unload the buns and the delivery driver was unsuccessful at contacting his manager in order to straighten out the issue.

“This is not what I negotiated,” he said, but because there was nothing in writing, it would be their word against his.

Several other committee members, who were present when the buns were delivered, went on record with the driver that the payment was being made under protest, and Flannery said he is hopeful that the issue can get sorted out.

“I’m going to hope that Sara Lee will own up to it and make it right,” he said. As of Thursday, he had still not heard back from the company.

He said the higher priced buns won’t hurt the festival, but the extra money spent on the buns could have been spent elsewhere such as the main stage musical act.

Flannery said many of the committee members have decided that if the issue isn’t made right, Sara Lee will no longer be providing the festival with buns. They are already looking at other options, but Flannery is optimistic.

“If I am wrong being a Pollyanna and this doesn’t play out to our advantage, there will be a different supplier next year.”

Several attempts to reach out to the Sara Lee Baking Company in Rockford for a comment were unsuccessful and messages couldn’t be left because the mailboxes were full.