A good day to pie: Kyle council votes to end pie festival

KYLE — Following discussion of the city's destination events at its Feb. 20 meeting, Kyle City Council is discontinuing the annual Pie in the Sky festival.

Currently, the Parks and Recreation Department hosts two destination events, Pie in the Sky and Kyle Fair A Tex-Travaganza, and 49 community events, such as disability dances, the annual polar plunge and a back-to-school bash, explained PARD Director Mariana Espinoza. Staff was specifically asking council for an amended budget for the two destination events.

The budget allotted for the Kyle Fair is $130,000. In 2023, the department had 10,000 guests and spent $239,786.99, but the expenses have increased and staff is requesting $440,200. These increases are due to additional fencing along the perimeters, the addition of a drone show, more swag, hotels for performers, a second stage, entertainment costs, an event staffing company to supplement city staff and an increase in the Guinness Book of World Record fees.

According to Kyle Special Events Manager Claudia Rocha, the new addition of fencing around the events is due to the gold standard that the city has implemented, which states that there be perimeters around events larger than 2,000-3,000 attendees.

Two options were presented for the Kyle Fair, occurring May 17-19.

Option one is as follows:

• Approve the budget amendment of $250,000

• A two-day event

• Either a firework show or a drone show

• No event staffing company because city staff from all departments would work

• Only advertise the gathering of Kyles with the Guinness Book of World Records for one month

• One stage with live entertainment

• No large tent for vendors

• No event perimeter fencing

• Free admission

Option two is as follows:

• Approve the budget amendment of $440,200

• A three-day event

• Includes a firework show and a drone show

• The hiring of an event staffing company to supplement the PARD staff; police department, communications department and emergency management would still work

• Advertise the gathering of Kyles for three months

• Two stages with live entertainment

• Addition of a Saturday and Sunday performer

• Vendors will have to supply their own tent

• Includes fencing around all event areas

• Free admission

The optional expenses include drones for $30,000, fireworks for $30,000, the event staffing company for $75,000, three months of advertising the gathering of Kyles for $30,000, an additional stage for $9,000 and more.

Espinoza stated that they are also preparing to double the amount of carnival activities for the event.

“I’m all for fireworks. Everybody loves fireworks, so I think that would be a fantastic addition to the Tex-Travaganza. And I don’t know, whatever budget amendment you need, you know I’m going to give you all the money if I can,” said council member Daniela Parsley.

The council member requested that they discuss asking vendors to prepare enough food for all attendees, as many ran out last year and guests had tickets with no place to use them.

Council member Michael Tobias stated that if the city is thinking long-term in regard to the Kyle Fair, they need to look at the overall picture and if they need to hire additional staff to ensure it runs smoothly, then those options need to be considered.

Council approved option two for the Kyle Fair.

Pie in the Sky traditionally takes place during Labor Day weekend and garnered 6,000 attendees in 2023, which Espinoza noted felt successful. PARD staff is requesting $443,400 as opposed to the $180,000 budget set for the event. Last year, $255,000 was spent funding the hot air balloon festival.

Discussions quickly began in regard to Pie in the Sky, with several council members noting that the event is unreliable due to its weather dependency.

“I’m just still, for the past couple years, not sold on just Pie in the Sky as a whole because it does seem that we do finance this every year, and people do come out, but it’s very unpredictable of what it is, with the weather and everything else, so it’s kind of always hard for me to get on board,” said Tobias.

“When [Pie in the Sky] went down over COVID, I was sending out strong signals that I didn’t think we needed to bring it back, specifically because it’s such an unreliable event,” agreed Mayor Travis Mitchell.

There were also two options for Pie in the Sky that had varied funding and hot air balloon numbers, but when asked, the mayor stated that he would go with option one or “option none,” to which council member Bear Heiser agreed with. Afterwards, Heiser asked how long the Pie Capital of Texas title lasted, which according to a resident, is until 2031.

“I don’t think that kind of a long-term branding initiative is something that you necessarily take a vote to eliminate. My suggestion would be to maybe start to take steps in that direction and the biggest step would be to get rid of the pie themed festival,” said Mitchell. “I felt for a while that that’s the appropriate way to go to start phase out of that while we continue to grasp for new markers of our identity.”

Espinoza stated that the staff loves Pie in the Sky, but she does acknowledge that the event takes place during an extremely hot time of the year. Despite this, she knows that when the hot air balloons enter the sky, it is “magical.”

Parsley wanted to table Pie in the Sky until residents could give feedback, but staff agreed with council members that there is no time to wait due to needing details to be confirmed soon. With that said, Tobias motioned to discontinue the 2024 Pie in the Sky event and reallocate the funds toward another event or add the money to this year’s Tex-Travaganza. Parsley seconded the motion and it passed 6-1, with council member Robert Rizo dissenting.

Council will meet again on March 7.