Regarding the athletic competition and the festival in general, our 2023 year was brutal with extreme heat and loss of revenue. For those who are not in the know, it takes a lot of up-front money to host an event and if attendance is nil, you end up starting from scratch. We have done the best we can with what we have to provide for athletic competition. When you do not own the land, you have little say as to what you can do with it. Athletes did not like the carnival lot as it was too compacted and damaged the cabers, etc. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to modify that in any way. So, we went to great expense to rent the arena/grandstand area as our athletic director thought it would be a good fit. We are now hearing that people aren’t a fan of putting athletics far away and in horse dung (can’t blame ya there!). This year, with finances the way they are we have no other option and are unable to include the athletic competitions in this year’s schedule. This was not an easy decision.

We are looking into possibilities for the future and welcome constructive ideas if any of you are interested in helping, we would love to have your help. We value athletic competition but cannot know what to provide without constructive input. You can message us at infromation@nachs.info if you want to offer some ideas or be included in the planning discussions.

We understand that Athletics are a draw to the festival and we hope that you will still consider attending in 2024. We are working hard to bring you a fun, educational, entertaining and engaging festival as we always have. We do hope to have some Athletics demonstrations!