2017-002-EDA-year round events-Revised

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investment. The EDA has dedicated more than 18,000 volunteer hours to this effort, and that's something to be proud of! 5. If your organization collaborates or has created partnerships with other organizations, groups, or other events to cross -promote in an effort to encourage county -wide tourism, how is this accomplished? The EDA works closely with the Chamber Tourism Office to cross -promote Central Washington Color in all of our campaigns and websites. We work with both Roslyn and Cle Elum to exchange ideas through the Main Street Program network. In 2016 the Director spent time in Cie Elum meeting with the board to help strengthen their own Downtown Main Street Program. Cross -promoting creates strong downtowns in the county and is great for tourism. The Hometown Holidays publication is a county- wide initiative that includes a full calendar of events with listings for Ellensburg, Roslyn, Cie Elum, and Kittitas. The Busker Festival guide includes information about upcoming events, including the Manastash Metric and Ellensburg Film Festival. The EDA works in cross -promotion and partnership with the Ellensburg Rodeo and Kittitas County Fair (all advertising for the Hoedown talks about both the Rodeo and Fair), Jazz in the Valley, and Gallery One. We work closely with the Farmer's Market with events like the Children's Day and Buskers. The EDA is always looking for additional opportunities to partner within the county. 6. Please explain what plans exist to allow this project to become self-sustaining. Include any plans for ticket sales, event sponsors, and other cost-recoverymodels. Through our entire budget, most of our activities are becoming self-sustaining. It should be noted that making money at a festival is not our key objective. We do them to help attract visitors to the downtown. For example, the Busker Festival this year, which is far more self-sustaining than previous years, was such a good day that one of the merchants said they had a "Christmas Day" of sales. Outside of the Holiday Season, this was her best day of the year. We continue to seek funding through partnerships, sponsorships, and grants, and we have grown our overall program from a budget of $135,000 in 2010 to over $250,000 in 2017. 7. Additional information: Provide any additional information which will assist the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee in evaluating your project and its benefit to tourism. Please limit any additional written information to one page and any other additional attachments to 3 pages. Regardless of how much additional information is included, only the first 3 pages will be provided to reviewers. The impact that the Ellensburg Downtown Association has had on downtown in the last 6 years is impressive. Through our design initiatives, events, and promotions, we are helping to create a great downtown. In 2017 we will apply for RevitalizeWA, likely the largest conference that will be held in downtown Ellensburg ever, with over 250 attendees for three days. All of our events are continuing to expand or grow, or we re- evaluate and take action to improve or stop doing them. Over $50,000 is spent in shops annually for Girls Night Out and thousands of people visit the downtown for the farmer's market, Buskers, Hoedown, and Hometown Holidays. County -wide Lodging Tax Application Page 115