The Kelso City Council discusses questions around the Highlander Festival policies during the Feb. 7 meeting. The council voted 4-3 to support the board's current approach. (Footage from KLTV)
The decision about who will serve coffee at the Highlander Festival may have put the signature Kelso event at risk of not coming together for 2023.
In September the Kelso City Council delegated two members to meet with the festival commission and clarify the vendor selection rules for the city’s annual event. The review stemmed from a complaint by Red Leaf Coffee that they were not given a fair chance to apply to be the coffee vendor at the Scottish and Celtic festival.
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In response, the festival board discussed not holding the festival later this year if the council took further oversight actions, according to Kelso Councilmember Brian Wood and the commission’s meeting minutes.
A City Council resolution meant to stabilize the debate became the most divided vote of the Feb. 7 council meeting. Wood told the council that around the time of the Feb. 7 meeting, a festival board member said they were “reluctant to put any work into the festival” while the city was holding the review of the vendor policies. According to Wood, the board member wanted more assurance that the council would not change the ordinance about the festival commission or force them to enact new rules.
“I wanted to address the specific issue that came to me from a board member saying that we won’t have a festival if we don’t get a thumbs-up that says go,” Wood said.
A man throws a heavy stone in the open stone competition at the Highlander Festival on Sept. 10, in Kelso. Similar to shot-put, the goal is to throw as far as possible. The Kelso City Council has made tentative plans to review the festival's operations with the festival's board.
Councilors eventually voted 4-3 in favor of the resolution, which encouraged the board to move ahead with planning the festival and their ability to set their own vendor requirements. Wood, Mayor Mike Karnofski, Jim Hill and Lisa Alexander voted in favor while Keenan Harvey, Kim Lefebvre and LaDonna Page voted against.
“I’m worried if we just blanket statement, ‘go ahead, we support you with whatever is written versus not written,’ it is not a clear message to our citizens,” Page said.
Most festival board members were reached for comment by The Daily News but did not reply.
The Highlander Festival Commission was created by a Kelso city ordinance in 1985 to standardize and help fund the event. While the board can set its own rules and regulations and largely runs independently, the council does appoint members and oversee operations.
The festival board met on Sept. 26, days after the council first voted to review the vendor policy for the event. According to the meeting minutes, the commission discussed the need to put their food vendor policy in writing. The policy written into the minutes said “all returning food vendors will take preference,” as long as they pay their application fee on time and do not compete with other vendors.
The minutes from the same meeting show the festival board talked about the future of the event. The minutes cite comments from Larry Alexander — a former Kelso City Council member and husband of current Kelso Council member Lisa Alexander — that the festival could be moved or may not take place at all if the council made changes to the ordinance.
It is unclear if or how the vendor policy written in September differed from previous versions. The board has not met since November, when Wood attended their meeting.
Lisa Alexander told the council that the board is now behind schedule in planning the festival and could be unable to book certain Highland acts.
Coffee options
The current coffee vendor at the Highlander Festival is Scotsman Espresso from Snohomish County, which is a staple at the Kelso Highlander Festival and other Highlander events in Washington. Owner Marvella Black said she was invited to come to Kelso while serving at the first Hood River Highland Celtic Festival in 2010 and has returned every year since.
Black said that she’d heard about debate on the festival board about changing coffee vendors over the last few years. Black, who has also served on festival planning boards, said it was typical for returning vendors to be the default option for annual events.
“Typically most events do stick with the stands that are going to be loyal. The worst thing is if you flake out and disinvite something, and then the next year your new vendor leaves but the previous vendor has booked something else, and you’re stuck without a coffee option,” Black said.
The resolution also states that the council found it reasonable to “give preference to vendors which operate in a manner consistent with highlander culture” and limit the number of vendors selling the same item.
Red Leaf Coffee’s marketing director Kalei LaFave lodged the initial complaint. During the council meeting on Feb. 7, LeFave suggested that Red Leaf might pull back on its business and nonprofit work in Kelso if they were not given consideration for the vendor spot.
“Ask yourself, why would Red Leaf want to participate in any Kelso events moving forward? Why would we give back to Kelso the way we have when the message council could be sending is they don’t want us here?” LaFave said.
Later in the meeting, LaFave stated that Red Leaf would drop its application to be the coffee vendor.
During their discussion at the council meeting, Wood and several other members of the council asked for another workshop where the council and the festival board could talk through the festival organization in depth. The council did not set a date for that workshop.