While the Budbreak Wine Festival planned for 2011 seems to be a long way off, those in charge of organizing and backing the event seem to have some conflicting opinions on where the next one should be held.

Bob Meinecke, past president of the Mount Airy Rotary Club, organized the May 1 event and has been appointed as the organizer of the Budbreak 2011 festival. He said he is looking into the possibility of moving the festival from Main Street, where it was held this year, to the Blackmon Amphitheatre.

Freddie Quesinberry, president of the Downtown Business Association (DBA), said the Budbreak Wine Festival had originally started off as DBA’s idea, but then the organization turned it over to the Mount Airy Rotary Club to organize.

“They did a very good job with it,” Quesinberry said.

He said the DBA is an organization that supports downtown businesses and its purpose is not to support events that are held outside of the downtown district.

“I think Bob and a couple of other people are wanting to move it there, too. There are a couple of people that belong to the Rotary who are also on the DBA and Bob isn’t on the DBA. As far as the DBA, we don’t want to move it to the Blackmon Amphitheatre. We don’t want to move it anywhere else except for downtown,” said Quesinberry, who owns two downtown businesses.

“It’s not going to benefit the downtown nearly as much if it’s off-premises. Even though it’s close by, it still won’t benefit the downtown,” Quesinberry said.

Meinecke said he is still in the process of talking with vendors and businesses to see where the festival should be held next year. He said the DBA was only a sponsor and doesn’t fully understand the logistics that went into planning the festival.

“From what I have gathered, they haven’t looked at everything that it took to put that festival on — the police presence, the fire department restrictions and all of the other things. What they want most is an event that will draw attention to Mount Airy and downtown for their business purposes, and I totally agree. That’s been part of the business plan from the very beginning,” said Meinecke.

He said that anything that is done for next year’s festival will be for the benefit of the downtown merchants.

“We are in the planning stages and we are soliciting information from the vendors, the sponsors, from all parties involved because the event is bigger than the Mount Airy Rotary Club, it’s bigger than the Downtown Business Association, it’s all about what will best benefit our community long-term,” said Meinecke.

Quesinberry said the Budbreak festival went so well last year that the DBA had considered blocking off Main Street, from Independence Boulevard to Pine Street. He said one of the problems with the festival last year was that people who wanted to get to some of the businesses in the blocked-off area were not allowed through unless they bought a ticket to the event.

Quesinberry suggested that there be a system in place where people who want to participate in the wine festival would purchase a wristband and that would let the vendors know who had paid the admission price, yet still allow people to move freely through the downtown area during the festival.

He said while the DBA has not taken an official vote on the subject yet, the general consensus is that the festival should be held downtown and if it’s not held downtown, then that’s when the association will take a stand.

“Most everybody I’ve talked to say they don’t want to support it if it’s not held downtown. Hopefully, we can work together rather than separately,” said Quesinberry.

Until a decision is made on where the festival will be held, he said, the DBA would continue to work with the Mount Airy Rotary Club on keeping the festival downtown.

Brandt Scholz, owner of B&L Custom Jewelers, located in the area of Main Street where the festival was held last year, said if the festival is moved off Main Street, “I see no reason for any downtown business to participate.”

Contact Mondee Tilley at mtilley@mtairynews.com or at 719-1930.