Last Friday’s Trigg County Country Ham Festival meeting served as a direct follow-up to the November Cadiz City Council meeting — in which Chief Administrative Officer Jack Lingenfelter affirmed that the annual celebration did not, at least this year, “make any money.”
Was it generally successful? All signs accordingly point to “yes.”
Cadiz Police Chief Tyler Thomas said that a business week leading up to the celebration averaged 24,800-plus cars coming through the downtown. But in the main throes of HamFest’s Friday and Saturday, 19,000-plus drove through Jefferson Street alone, and that wasn’t counting around other parts of the community.
Did this gathering, however, net the City of Cadiz — which has a budgeted line item for the pig party — new revenue? Per Lingenfelter: “No. No it did not.”
In comparison from previous years, Lingenfelter did say that use of city personnel time in 2025 was “the lowest it has been,” but that was in hours and not monies.
Following questions from Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism Director and Festival Committee Chair Beth Sumner, Lingenfelter also noted that for payroll purposes, regular time and overtime were accounted — and included all tasks associated with the festival’s workings.
The way things have been reported in the past, Lingenfelter said, it’s possible the city made around $10,000 in 2025 festival proceeds. However, nearly $30,000 in staffing costs for the “all-hands-on-deck” approach to greeting visitors and providing goods and services resulted in a $20,000 loss — even after booth rentals, merchandising and other fairly-gotten means.
These things, Lingenfelter added, have to be explained to Cadiz City Council and other elected officials.
The likely-permanent vacated On Main position, Lingenfelter said, falls under the city’s “Renaissance” budget line item, which comes with a salary and a $1,500 repair buffer. This has already been carved for $20,000 to repair the Renaissance Center, and Lingenfelter also confirmed that the Christmas Parade also doesn’t have its own line item in the budget.
Furthermore, city department heads have now been given the “go ahead” for annual needs, something Lingenfelter said had always been required asks of previous city clerks and treasurers.
Now, he said, the city has a “better idea” on where to make up the festival’s funding shortfalls.
Lingenfelter was asked by Tourism’s Jamie Lewis: “Could any big event run by the city make money?”
All profits, he said, had to be rolled back into the General Fund, while anything above mark “really needed to go back to the taxpayer.”
What does seem to be in further development for next year’s 50th anniversary, and likely beyond, is some improved digitizing of the festival. Lingenfelter said he’s recently been in contact with an unnamed vendor, and if a contract is agreed upon, several pre-party amenities could arrive, such as online booth registration, the use of QR codes, a digital festival map, as well as a festival phone app allowing users to connect with vendors, event schedules and more.
Just the idea of not sending out pre-packets to vendors, he said, could save thousands in postage costs.
