Carillon Park cancels German festival in wake of backlash

The German heritage festival that Dayton History planned the same days as a German club was to hold its annual festival has been canceled.

The change of heart avoided there being two large German festivals in Dayton this summer at the same time.

>>MORE: Battling German festivals to be held on same days 

"While we will no longer host the GermanFest Picnic, importantly, we have also decided that we will not create our own German heritage event. It was never our intent to harm the club," Brady Kress, Dayton History's president and CEO, said in a statement released Friday. "Our interest was simply to continue to serve the public with an event at Carillon Park. We wish them the best success."

As we first reported yesterday, Dayton History, the non-profit organization that operates Carillon Park and several other historical sites, cut ties with the Liederkranz-Turner by saying the German club's 34th annual Germanfest Picnic would not be held at Carillon Park.

Instead Dayton History said it would hold its own 10-day German heritage festival Aug. 11 to 20 at the park located at 1000 Carillon Blvd. in Dayton.

Liederkranz-Turner’s Germanfest Picnic is planned for Aug. 11 to 13.

Dayton History’s decision to end its relationship with Liederkranz-Turner and to hold a German-themed event on the same day the club held its long-standing event drew considerable backlash on social media and elsewhere in the community.

Organizers of Germanfest plan to go forward with their annual event and are seeking a new location.

John Koerner, Germanfest Picnic's longtime chairman, said

said Germanfest has always been held the second full weekend of August.

He called Carillon’s plans for a German heritage festival “egregious” and a “transparent” attempt to confuse the public and build the new festival off GermanFest Picnic’s success over the last 33 years.

“The push back on this has been much more than they expected,” Koerner said. “We had so many people say ‘I can’t believe they would do that.’”

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