Fort William Historical Park has placed the Great Rendezvous on hiatus.
Officials with the Old Fort announced it would be suspending the summer event this year because of dwindling attendance. The event, which depicts the time when the fur traders would all gather for their annual general meeting, has never missed a summer since its inception back in the 1970s.
Although the event has changed over the years – it once was an event for boy scouts – it has since become one of the main attractions of Fort William Historical Park.
But park spokesman Marty Mascarin said for the past dozen years the attendance at the Great Rendezvous hasn’t been the same.
Tourism across the border has also decline following the Sept. 11 attacks.
While the historical park places more importance on attendance, Mascarin said the event hasn’t been profitable for the amount of resources that have been used.
“By the numbers it was discovered that (Rendezvous) was not having any positive impact in terms of daily visitation,” Mascarin said.
“There was no real differentiation between the Great Rendezvous and a regular visitation day. A great deal of staffing and promotional resources and so on was still going into the event and the return wasn’t working out to be the same.”
Mascarin suspected that the main reason for the dwindling attendance was because the Old Fort started charging attendance fees for the event. Many veteran rendezvousers didn’t appreciate having to pay the fee and that may have lessened the experience for them, he said.
The information that Rendezvous wasn’t doing well came out in a report just as they were entering the season. Mascarin said it was time to take a step back and reassess the event as well as all the other summer events.
Other longstanding events such as Anishnawbe Keeshigun and Fort Under Siege also known as Battle of Fort William will continue as scheduled.
Mascarin said even though the park is diversifying its events the historical aspect of the fort hasn’t been neglected and is still vibrant as ever.
He added that last year’s Rendezvous with Italy was meant as a one off event and not intended as something longstanding.
