Last summer Big Lake celebrated the 40th annual Spud Fest. The sun shone brightly, the rain held off and plenty of beer was consumed. But the 40th celebration of Big Lake’s biggest community event may well be the last, according to a letter sent out by the Spud Fest committee last week. Also last week the Spud Fest committee went to the City of Big Lake to explain the situation and to ask for help. A meeting has been set for Tuesday, (Jan. 29), at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Anyone who is interested in Spud Fest is invited to attend. Spud Fest began as a volunteer event and has grown over the years. In years past, if Spud Fest made a profit, it was donated to the various organizations which helped put the event on. “Many people today expect to be paid for their help in volunteering. Unfortunately, it has led to an extreme lack of funding. Instead of organizations volunteering their time, talents, commodities and services, Spud Fest has to pay for these needs to run this event,” the letter reads. Spud Fest receives no help from any source other than donations and what money is raised at the event, which takes hundreds of volunteers to put on. “It is with deep regret that these lack of donations, services, volunteers and the charges that accumulate and difficulties with Mother Nature, that Spud Fest may not be able to continue and is now finding it unable to donate funds back to our wonderful established community organizations.” The Spud Fest board, which is also all-volunteer, began running into deep waters when inclement weather in 2010 and 2011 took a bite out of anticipated revenue. Questions have been asked by the West Sherburne Tribune staff about Spud Fest financial activities over the past three years. Answers were slow in coming. Last year, tax returns for the year 2011 were submitted. The return shows Spud Fest had a total revenue of $90,473 with total expenses of $90,467. A sheet listing income and expenses from the 2012 Spud Fest was submitted with the letter, however, it is being rewritten to make it easier to understand, the Spud Fest Committee said in an e-mail to the paper. Several requests for interviews with Charlene Albright, chair of the Spud Fest Committee, have gone unanswered. The Big Lake Lions, who for many years coordinated Spud Fest, withdrew their support for the event last year. “I don't really have a comment yet but there will be a few of us attending the meeting,” said Lion Chuck Martinson. “This is not to make accusations or point fingers at what happened in the past,” said Big Lake Mayor Raeanne Danielowski. “Spud Fest is our community festival. We want to see what we can do to make sure it can continue.”