Candy Dance, craft fair to stay in step

Genoa's crafts fair and dinner-dance will stay in step after town board members voted Tuesday to keep the Candy Dance and the fair that bears its name on the same weekend.

Board members showed interest in a proposal to move the dinner-dance to an earlier, and warmer weekend, in September.

But with Candy Dance weekend coming Sept. 27-28, and the proposed dinner date Sept. 5, they decided moving the dance should wait until there was more time to promote it.

The proposal was to establish September as Candy Dance month with events every weekend, according to Town Manager Sheryl Gonzales.

The dinner-dance was the town's original fundraiser, started in 1919 to raise money for streetlights.

It served its purpose until the early 1970s when the craft fair was added to help pay for recreation for town children.

Today the craft fair makes the lion's share of the money the town raises at Candy Dance. The dinner has decreased in popularity over the last few years, attracting only 335 people in 2008. Since the dinner was catered instead of prepared by volunteers, its fundraising power has been reduced. In 2006, it lost $3,294. Last year it only made $1,315.

In other business, town board members approved an agreement with the Carson Valley Arts council to produce a Genoa Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival.

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