March 28, 2024

Top Cherries

June 28, 2015

Current, Past National Cherry Festival Leaders Look Back, Forward

Only five people have been served as executive directors of the National Cherry Festival since its beginnings 89 years ago. It’s a job that comes with parades and smiles and crowds – but also with lots of logistics and high expectations. Tom Menzel, Tim Hinkley, and Trevor Tkach – the Festival’s three most recent leaders – each faced their own challenges in the position. Menzel stared down near bankruptcy and reorganized the archaic board structure; Hinkley made the organization more transparent; Tkach now looks to the future as some clamor for a more “authentic” festival experience.

The three haven’t sat down to reflect on the event’s history, future, and their own experiences until now. Northern Express gathered the three on a sunny Saturday morning at the former National Cherry Festival headquarters building on Sixth and Union Streets (now a beautifully renovated modern, private home).

The talk was cheery, candid – and even led to a few surprises. Is a parade from Cherry Festivals past coming back?

Express: What were your initial impressions of the Cherry Festival that first year you took over?

Menzel: It brought back memories for me, having been raised here. Seeing those floats go by reminded me of when I was back at Trinity Lutheran and an angel on one of those floats. I also learned that at the time, the event was dependent on a core group of volunteers who knew how to get everything done. I was very appreciative.

Hinkley: Tom’s right. You’ll hear the mantra about volunteers a lot. They really have the executive director’s back. I’m not from Traverse City, but you would’ve never known.

Express: Tom, you came in during a very difficult time for the Festival. Not sure the community realized how bad things were.

Menzel: I was asked to come in and fix some things. I reported to 87 people on three different boards. So I had to go through some heavy lifting, asking people who had been in their positions for 25 or 30 years to vote themselves out. We had $547,000 in debt on a building, and a line of credit we were 60 percent into, and you need to put money out to get [music] acts. So I acted right away or there might have been bankruptcy. I don’t think there was an awareness among some about the serious financial trouble at the time.

Hinkley: You can say that now, but you couldn’t then. And heavy lifting is an understatement. If you had not changed the organization, I wouldn’t have considered the job.

Tkach: Didn’t somebody spit on you back then, Tom? At Friday Night Live after you canceled the Heritage Parade? You took a lot of heat. I learned a lot from you and that. You take it, and you have to have thick skin.

Menzel: You take the high road. If you get into it at that level, you’ve lost. I was brought in as a change agent, and if you’re a change agent, you always keep your resume in your right lapel. It’s high risk.

Express: What about competition? The Cherry Festival’s not the only game in town anymore.

Hinkley: That was a key thing; we had no competition, and then all of the sudden there was the [Traverse City] Film Festival and [Traverse City Beach Bums] baseball. It actually I think has made the Festival much better.

Menzel: It was change or die, and it did make us better. The Film Festival forced that, really. We were competing for volunteers and more. But it was two potentially strong brands, with somewhat different demographic profiles. Both were advantageous to the community, though a lot of people didn’t look at it that way then.

Express: Trevor, what were your initial observations when you took the job here?

Tkach: I hadn’t lived in Traverse City for six or seven years, and what I knew of the Festival from before was going to these huge concerts. It was a different Festival back then. And when I came back, it was almost…it felt like it was a wounded bird. I came back and it was still a really cool party, but some felt hurt that those big concerts had gone away and the community just wasn’t rallying behind it as much. And Tom had to drop the Heritage Parade, and people were angry.

Tkach: If I had a crystal ball, I wouldn’t be working for the Cherry Fest! We have a community that embraces the Festival again. But like Disney used to say, ‘If it isn’t broke, break it.’”

We want to have a far more interactive relationship with residents and customers. We have more transparency now, and want to kind of let the people and the market make the decisions going forward. It’s been that way since Tom took over. Back then we knew we had to sell tickets at the Open Space and we had to grow new lines of revenue like running races.

Express: And then ultimately, five years later, you got the job to run it all.

Express: So what does the Festival have to do now?

Tkach: Right.

Hinkley: He was a no-brainer to take over. Not only his sales and marketing background, but he’s a millennial.

Express: It’s interesting to see the three of you reminiscing and talking about the past – and the future.

Hinkley: I told Trevor when I left that I’m just a phone call away, and he seeks us out and is very good at asking good questions. We talk about what’s next. What’s the Festival going to look like in five years? I give him [Trevor] kudos for saying we need to change. He embraces change and understands if it’s going to survive, it’s going to have to meet whole new markets.

Menzel: I also meet with Trevor and we’re extremely proud. I relish in his success.

Express: So what’s next for the National Cherry Festival?

Tkach: Again, trying to reconnect locally with that local pride. Trying to keep our audiences engaged with smaller programming like street buskers…music performers during lunches down at the Open Space…working with Taste The Local Difference on food events that are locally sourced. That’s important to the community, and tourists are now looking for that.

Hinkley: They come back year after year, but they always want something new.

Menzel: I think too many organizations wait too long to change, and it’s too late.

Tkach: And then this year we have the [U.S. Air Force] Thunderbirds back, and that’s a big deal. It’s been 25 years since they were here.

Menzel: I tried to get them years ago and I just couldn’t.

Tkach: And next year is our 90th. And one thing Tom had to let go was the Heritage Parade. So can we bring that back? It might seem trivial to some, with its tractors and old cars…but if there’s a lot of interest and financial backing, we could look at it. That was a parade for the locals. And we’re also looking at the big picture. We’ve peaked at the Open Space. We can’t do anything more down there. So do you expand on the calendar and explore things at other times of year or add different venues? Yet there’s also some tension in the community; they want a balance, and they’re asking us to be cognizant that this is our backyard. So how do we make sure we respect that?

Express: What are the risks that still face the Festival?

Menzel: I think there’s a real lack of understanding of how critical the brand of the Cherry Festival is for this area and the immense value it has for over 80 years and all it’s given back to the community in terms of economic benefit. There are still some elected officials who make it difficult.

Hinkley: There’s also a lot of reinvestment that has to take place. Always beefing up the balance sheet. You worry about a few consecutive days of rain. I think the worst we had was a little sprinkle in three years.

Tkach: I had two nights of rain last year!

Menzel: I’d start looking at the weather forecast seven days out!

Hinkley: Oh yeah. It was always the first thing I’d do in the morning and last thing I’d do at night.

Tkach: You can look ten days out now!

Tom Menzel, 2006-2008

“I was asked to come in and fix some things. I don’t think there was an awareness among some about the serious financial trouble at the time.”

Now Executive Director of Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA)

Tim Hinkley, 2008-2011

“We had no competition, and then all of the sudden there was the [Traverse City] Film Festival and [Traverse City Beach Bums] baseball. It actually, I think, has made the Festival much better.”

Now Chair of the TC Boom Boom Club (responsible for July 4 fireworks display)

Trevor Tkach, 2007 in sales/marketing. 2012-Current as Executive Director

“That’s the beauty of what we’ve built, and we have a community that embraces the Festival again. But like Disney used to say, ‘If it isn’t broke, break it.’”

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