News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The promoters of the now-defunct Sisters Antique Festival have slapped the City of Sisters and the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce with a lawsuit alleging that the groups conspired to push the festival out of Sisters and created unfair competition.
The suit seeks $18,000 to compensate for lost business and $50,000 in non-economic damages.
The city decided not to allow Country At Heart Promotions to stage their antique festival in Sisters again this year, because the staff and council were unhappy with the way the event, particularly clean-up at Creekside City Park, was handled.
The promoters moved the event to the Deschutes County Fair Ground, scheduled it for August 12-13,renamed Cascades Antique Festival.
The city, in October 1999, invited the chamber to stage an antique event at the Village Green, is scheduled as the Sisters Antique Faire on August 19-20.
The lawsuit alleges that the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce misled antique vendors, implying that the Sisters Antique Faire -- the name being very similar to "Sisters Antique Festival" -- was the same event that Country At Heart Promotions staged the two previous years.
The suit claims the city acted unfairly by denying the promoters a permit and essentially giving the event to the chamber.
Virginia Christie and Nancy Mattison of Country At Heart Promotions claim a 50 percent reduction in the number of vendors at their event in Redmond this year.
Chamber attorney Chuck Fadeley told The Nugget that a copyright attorney advised that the chamber "had every right to use the name (Sisters Antique Faire)."
Fadeley denied any intent or effort to take over another outfit's event.
"We don't have any control over who the city allows to use their property," Fadeley said. "We were happy to step in and put on an antique event, but it wasn't done to get anybody out one bit. We were merely filling a void that was not of our own making."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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