Financial and volunteer challenges are pushing out small to mid-size community events.

For the first time in over 50 years, there will be no town Fourth of July celebration in Spreckels. The decision made in April by the Spreckels Veterans Memorial District Board to cancel the event – that featured 10K, 5K and fun runs, a parade, a firefighters’ muster, craft vendors, live music and food – was a hard one, but the reality was that expenses had become unmanageable.

“It’s sad that it’s not happening this year,” says Rick Magno, chair of the district board.

It came down to money. The district – which owns and operates Spreckels Veterans Memorial Park, as well as the Veterans Memorial Building in conjunction the Post #6849 Veterans of Foreign Wars – lost $8,000 on last year’s event and was facing another possible deficit.

It is just one more event in a series of small to mid-size events canceled, postponed or nearly canceled. The reasons range from rising expenses to loss of sponsors to volunteer fatigue, or a combination of those factors.

The Salinas Holiday Parade of Lights was abruptly canceled last November, just two weeks before it was supposed to run, after organizers said they were short of both volunteers and funding. They had $6,400 in the bank but needed $11,000 for insurance, portable toilets and other expenses. Then-mayor Kimbley Craig hit the phones to collect sponsorships and volunteers. The parade went on as originally scheduled on Dec. 1.

In April, the organizers of the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival announced they would take a year off. Joel Panzer, chair of the August festival, blamed volunteer fatigue, as well as a softening in donor support.

The event required at least 75 volunteers the day of the festivities. “Many of the volunteers have been doing it for six years. They are tired, that is the big piece,” Panzer says.

In addition, rising costs had driven up ticket prices in 2024, which resulted in 300 tickets they couldn’t sell. Panzer says they had already taken measures to cut costs, but prices kept increasing.

“The goal is to raise money for local nonprofits,” Panzer says. “If you’re losing money, you’re not doing that.” He is optimistic for next year – the plan is to reach out to other nonprofits to find the next generation of volunteer leaders to take over.

What is likely not coming back is the Artichoke Festival, a June event canceled after 65 years. Originally held in Castroville, it was moved to the Monterey County Fairgrounds around 10 years ago, which Executive Director Linda Scherer says saved the festival at that time. In recent years attendance had begun to fall. Sponsors fell by half and prices increased.

They tried moving the event again this year to the Monterey County Sheriff’s Posse Grounds in Salinas but when they couldn’t get enough sponsorship money, “it was time to pull the plug,” Scherer says.

The Fourth of July celebration in Spreckels may return in 2026. Magno says there are talks at the county level of waiving some of the permitting fees, and volunteers have come forward offering to help bring the event back next year.

Organizers fighting to save their events say it’s worth doing because something is lost when such community events disappear. “You lose community, you lose a sense of place, you lose pride in your community,” Panzer says.