Room Tax Commission awards Wausau Festival of Arts $10,808 to support downtown juried show

The Room Tax Commission voted to award the Wausau Festival of Arts a full tourism grant of $10,808 at a City Hall meeting; the motion passed unanimously. The motion to fund the full amount was made and approved after commissioners reviewed the festival’s marketing plan and visitor estimates.

Chris Sleep, who said he represents the Wausau Festival of Arts, described the downtown, juried event as featuring about 120 artists and said the festival targets visitors from outside Marathon County. Sleep said the festival limits paid advertising to markets beyond a 90‑mile radius, uses a service called Zap fundraising to recruit artists, and surveys artists and examines cell‑phone and credit‑card data with the Convention and Visitors Bureau to estimate hotel stays.

Commission members praised the festival’s application materials and marketing detail. One commissioner, Tom (surname not specified in the transcript), noted that trends in the CVB data show larger shares of visitors coming from Milwaukee, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Madison and Chicago, which he said supported the festival’s out‑of‑market reach.

Motion and vote: A motion to fund the Wausau Festival of Arts in full was made by a commission member (recorded in the transcript as Van Dyac) and seconded by Lewitski; the commission voted in favor and the chair declared the motion carried.

Background details: Festival organizers said the event’s main public days are Saturday and Sunday with artist set‑up on Friday; marketing targets adults roughly age 40 and older with disposable income. The festival works with Artrageous organizers on shuttles between Marathon Park and downtown and said some patrons attend both events but that each event’s art and mission differ.