For years, organizers have promoted the annual Mutton and Mead Festival in Montague as not only an opportunity to revel in medieval times but also as a high-profile fundraiser for charities, including the Montague Common Hall, Dakin Humane Society and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts.
Recently released financial documents show that claim to be a stretch.
From 2013 to 2015, the event collected $206,000 in revenue but gave, at best, only about $10,000 to charity. Meanwhile, Mutton and Mead had a surplus of nearly $59,000 sitting in the bank waiting for … what?
The event’s organizers said they need to keep the extra cash as a hedge against unexpected shortfalls in future years. But that claim strains credulity, given that they have had little trouble covering bills with the admission fees paid by attendees at the popular festival in years past. A rainy day fund is a good idea, but a smaller one should suffice.
Event organizers cited another reason for keeping cash in the bank: They may owe taxes due to a failure to properly claim tax-exempt status until this spring. “While we expect to be granted tax-exempt recognition status, we must be prepared for any outcome,” event organizers said in a statement to The Recorder. “If the desired status is not granted, we may have some tax liability to address.”
Oh. Perhaps they should have considered such questions years ago instead of waiting until this spring — and then only after questions were raised by volunteers, the newspaper and, ultimately, the state Attorney General’s Office.
In fairness to organizers, there’s no evidence they have done anything untoward with the money. Financial records show only modest stipends paid to the organization’s president and its treasurer, and most of the work comes from volunteers. And the money spent has reportedly gone to legitimate expenses ranging from hiring horseback jousters to renting portable toilets and staging a marketing campaign.
But the new disclosures should provide a wake-up call for both organizers and residents from across the Pioneer Valley who financially support Mutton and Mead. If the festival is to continue to sell itself partly as a charitable fundraiser, it needs to give more money to good causes — and do so in a transparent way.
The idea for the festival was hatched by a group of friends sitting around a campfire and has since grown into a popular ritual of early summer. Thousands of attendees get the chance to watch jousting matches, eat mutton and otherwise party like it’s 999.
Until this past year, the event also provided an opportunity for volunteer community actors to stage an elaborate version of “Robin Hood.” But then dissent grew among volunteers. After they raised a fuss, organizers canceled the performance and volunteers went public with complaints about the lack of financial disclosure and charitable donations.
“I was shocked. I don’t even know if I can explain the deep-seated level of betrayal that I felt,” Kaitlin Creed of Montague Center, who has played at the festival the tavern keeper’s wife in “Robin Hood” said earlier this year. “Not only for myself, but on behalf of all the people who gave up time with family and hours at work because they believed in a tradition that turned out to be all smoke and mirrors.”
The recent financial disclosures make clear that Mutton and Mead has done at least something to further charitable causes, mostly by offering discounted admission and other inducements for fairgoers to support the Food Bank and other charities. Organizers say they have helped to bring in more than 3,000 pounds of food — and foregone about $6,000 of revenue in the process.
At the same time, the group gave less than $1,000 in direct donations to charities including the Cancer Connection, Dakin Humane Society and the Food Bank. Organizers are claiming as “donations” payments of $3,000 to $5,000 a year to the Montague Common Hall, but they acknowledge that the payments covered using the hall as rehearsal space. Only time will tell whether the IRS will allow all or a portion of those fees to be claimed as tax-deductible gifts.
By all accounts, this year’s festival was another success. It will be a while before we see the 2016 financial statements. But we hope that when we do — or, better, long before that — Mutton and Mead’s leaders will open the purse strings and restore the community’s faith by doing some clear community good.