The 2010 Blue Ridge BBQ & Music Festival drew an estimated crowd of 14,569 over two days, June 11 and 12, and turned a profit of $30,000, according to unaudited financial statements compiled by music chairman Peter Eisenbrown and festival administrator Tabitha Cantrell.

In light of such positive results, Eisenbrown asked the chamber board at its meeting last Wednesday to continue operating the 17-year-old festival. Eisenbrown is not currently a member of the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce Board, which owns and operates the festival.

But Eisenbrown, who has run the music portion of the festival for the past 15 years, became the most vocal supporter of the festival when the chamber announced its cancellation early last January. The chamber restored the festival on January 28 after garnering $83,000 in rainy day pledges from area residents and supporters.

The future of the festival after 2010, however, was left in doubt.

The chamber leadership at the time stated its intention to run the 2010 festival and then seek a new arrangement for future festivals, with new management, citing concerns about the excessive risk, dwindling profits, and the manpower required to run the festival.

But chamber president Andy Millard said last Friday that a survey has gone out to chamber members seeking their opinion as to whether or not the chamber should continue to operate the festival. The chamber board will hold a special meeting July 21st to consider the question, Millard said.

I cant confirm the $30,000 profit, Millard said, But I have confidence in the numbers Peter (Eisenbrown) and Tabitha (Cantrell) compiled. Peter has been a hero in his efforts to bring the BBQ back. We called him this year our budget maven. He shepherded the budget and it looks like we made a profit.

Millard said attendance in recent years has been falling from its one-time high of 20,000, but he said his biggest concern going forward is the management.

We have shown this can be a viable event, Millard said, But who is going to do the work? It takes very special people. That is not an easy question to answer.

Eisenbrown, however, said he believes most of the BBQ steering committee members have indicated they are willing to return to their jobs in 2011, and that the majority of the rainy day fund underwriters also would likely continue to support the festival.

The underwriters did not back the festival in 2010 to see it cancelled in 2011, Eisenbrown wrote to chamber board members. Most underwriters agreed to pay up to $1,000 if the festival were to show a loss in 2010.

Eisenbrown said the results of the 2010 festival justify its continued operation by the chamber, and he wondered what else the chamber could possibly have in its plans that could equal the profit potential and local economic impact of the BBQ.

Despite cancellation of the festival and our major sponsors in January, the festival made a profit of $30,000 on the conservative side, Eisenbrown said to those in attendance at the chamber board meeting last week. He also sent his presentation by email to the full board to reach those who were not in attendance.

This years event, with all its trials (cancellation, weather [hot], economy, no active searching for sponsors), showed that the chamber has a popular, money-making event, and with better management it can become even more profitable for the chamber and a boon to the local economy, Eisenbrown wrote.

Eisenbrown noted that a survey, taken by TouchPoll, a national marketing research company, showed overwhelmingly positive response from those in attendance at the 2010 festival. TouchPoll workers using laptops and comment card software surveyed 428 people at the festival including cookers, vendors, volunteers and visitors a sample size TouchPoll said is more than large enough to exceed a 95 percent confidence level in the results.

Based on the TouchPoll survey, festival public relations officer Brenda Bradshaw of Young Creative Associates in Hendersonville said the festival generated $1.2 million in economic impact in the Thermal Belt communities. She based this on the estimates of personal spending given by the cookers, vendors, volunteers and visitors surveyed, as well as known fees and festival spending.

I cant confirm that economic impact number yet, Millard said Friday. I will be studying that over the weekend.

Eisenbrown said he believes sponsorship sales can be worked more diligently, and should be started now, and that there are plenty of opportunities to make the festival a money-maker for local businesses, as well as to keep tighter reins on the festival budget.