It was meant to be a magical moment for many families coupled with a flagship fundraiser for a religious not-for-profit poverty-fighting organization. It turned into a war of attrition against the ravages of an extreme weather season. That war ended on Friday when organizers behind Winter Wonder Forest posted an immediate season-ending closure notice.
“It comes as no surprise to anyone that the weather over the past month has been exceptionally harsh. From an insane dump of snow to freezing rain and now this extreme cold warning,” read the notice.
Earlier that day, organizers received legal notice demanding full payment of the rent for the entire season from host site Longrider’s RV Park, explained Steve Sande, founder of the event through the True Start Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to help get people into affordable, sustainable housing.
That rent was $33,000 per month, he continued, but the festival was beleaguered with bad weather that worked its way in and out of worse and worse weather right from the very start on the second weekend of November. Freezing rain, cold snaps, and substantial snow dumps forced the event to be delayed in opening and then intermittently closing and reopening.
Those circumstances had such a negative impact on sales that it was never able to recover from.
“It was tough. You can't fight Mother Nature, and she was extreme this year. Out of the entirety of the show, I think we were only open up for 50 per cent of it, which didn't help our cause as well,” Sande explained. “We were working on a solution to potentially turn it into a drive-thru, but we never got that far.”
The legal notice is only the start of True Start's financial woes related to the closure. The event's website notes that its refund policy states that if the event is canceled then ticketholders are eligible for a refund or a donation tax receipt.
Several ticketholders have since made public social media posts stating they have not received their refunds, with some noting the price of admission meant several hundred dollars for their families. None, however, were available for comment as of the time of publication, but their comments on Winter Wonder Forest's own post about the closure ranged from sadness and disappointment to threats of legal action and questions over the organization's business practices. One person suggested that True Start was still selling tickets the morning it received its legal notice.
Sande said he's working on a solution.
"We're still working on a strategy for that. Right now, we're doing our best to go through litigation and trying to find a best way to resolve. We know that people aren't too happy with us canceling the show, but it was out of our control."
