The Perry Fall Festival achieved financial success in 2024, according to the leader of the committee that organizes and carries out the event. Elias Coss said this year’s festival generated a profit of $11,609.68. That net income represented a dramatic turnaround from 2023, when the fall festival finished with a deficit of about $1,700. Coss, who served as chairman of the 2024 Fall Festival Steering Committee, provided a wrap-up report on the event during the Nov. 14 Perry Village Council meeting. He also is a member of that same village council. This year’s fall festival took place Sept. 7 at Lee Lydic Park in the village. The daylong festival features an assortment of fun and entertaining activities for people of all ages; food trucks and trailers; a basket auction; and a fireworks display at dusk. Admission to the festival is free. However, money is raised leading up to and during the celebration to benefit the Perry Area Joint Recreation District’s youth sports programs and the Perry Senior Center. Funding is generated from sources such as sponsorships, a raffle for gift baskets, 50/50 drawings and all-day ride wristbands for children. The net income of at this year’s festival was divided into two $5,804.84 donations for the Perry Senior Center and Perry rec district youth sports. Coss has helped in planning and carrying out the fall festival for the past four years. But 2024 marked his first as the event’s chairman. This year’s fall festival improved its financial performance in several significant ways, Coss said. First, he said the event secured a record number of financial sponsors. “We had 47 sponsors,” Coss said. “This is the despite the fact that I increased the cost of every single sponsorship level. I pretty much doubled them all.” The steering committee signed agreements with four event sponsors at $1,000 each; 11 gold sponsors at $500 each, 13 silver sponsors at $250 each, 19 bronze sponsors at $100 each. In addition, the festival sold out all of its spaces for vendors. “We actually had a waiting list of people who wanted to join in case somebody dropped off,” he said. Another positive change implemented by the steering committee helped to obtain more and better gift baskets for the festival’s basket auction. After the pandemic, many event organizers weren’t getting as many donations of gift baskets from businesses and individuals, Coss said. “And the baskets that these organizations are getting are significantly smaller today than they were before COVID,” he said. For the 2024 fall festival, the steering committee required all vendors who leased space at the event to also donate a gift basket valued at $50 or more. Coss said the new rule yielded impressive results. “Between the vendors and people from the community who actually reached out and wanted to donate stuff, I think we received in excess of 80 or 90 baskets — probably 100,” he said. Coss said the festival also reduced its expenses by a substantial amount in 2024 by finding a new fireworks display exhibitor for the festival. “We were able to save $1,700 by shopping around,” he said.