Wild West Music Fest was once again the topic du jour for a Maricopa City Council meeting. 

City staff and council members last night publicly reviewed a simplified version of the festival’s finances, showing it generated a net profit of just $2,315 following a city investment of $240,000. 

InMaricopa got a sneak peek at the numbers last week, which showed the event cost nearly $464,000 and generated roughly 466,000 in revenue. This included about $110,000 in ticket sales and $61,800 from vendor and beer sales.  

While the one-page report did not detail the number of tickets sold — including three-day, one-day and children’s passes — it did estimate the total attendance to be 9,500. This was a 36% decrease from the 2023 event, which saw an attendance of 15,000.  

Approximately 74% of this year’s attendance was composed of Maricopa residents, meaning 1 in 4 attendees came from other cities or out of state to attend the festival.  

City staff called the event a successful “effort to explore event tourism,” particularly with the goal of eventually making Maricopa a “destination city” by boosting its regional profile and businesses through a large event.  

A report from economic impact company Implan showed the event contributed to $2.84 million in economic impact for the city based on a survey of more than 200 attendees. 

However, not everyone was satisfied with the limited information presented.   

A complete financial picture 

Council member AnnaMarie Knorr tossed a few questions to city staff about the event’s finances, including how much the city invested by donating Copper Sky Regional Park for the festival and requiring overtime services from police and fire crews.  

Community Enrichment Quinn Konold said if the event coordinator Steve LeVine Entertainment rented the park, the cost would have amounted to $39,420. He also confirmed public safety overtime costs amounted to about $8,000. Calculating those costs would have put Maricopa’s investment closer to $287,000 into the event.  

“I think we just always need to be having a standard, and that’s why we have a pricing policy, but a standard of how we’re assessing things and what our actual investment is,” Knorr said during the meeting. “As we go forward, I would like to see those direct costs included so we know what we’re actually investing.” 

Knorr this afternoon told InMaricopa that she wants to “ensure that [the city and council] are using taxpayer dollars effectively,” especially for an event promoter that eventually takes home the profits.  

“In order to do that, we must have all of the information, which includes the associated staff and facility costs to get an accurate accounting of what’s being invested,” she said.  

‘Public dialogue is important’ 

It’s not the first time the councilmember has questioned the city’s role in funding the three-day music festival.  

Earlier this year, Knorr questioned the city opting to privatize some of its recreational and leisure programs while continuing to shovel money into others, like Wild West Music Fest. In March, the Community Enrichment Department released a strategy document stating the city would “only be involved in activities that benefit a significant portion of the community directly,” and those not already offered by the private sector.  

For Knorr, that sounded like prioritizing funding for music festivals aimed at bringing in tourism dollars over youth sports. 

“This is a major change. I am still uncertain how signature events hosted by the city, such as Merry Copa and the Wild West Music Fest, align with the limited scope of services outlined in the [document] as these events utilize taxpayer money as well,” she told InMaricopa in March.  

In the months since, Knorr’s position has remained the same.  

“I ask questions to make sure that we are doing what’s in the best interest of our community and our families,” she told InMaricopa today. “I want to make sure that we are investing in programming that our citizens actually want. Public dialogue is important to ensure that we are being transparent and accountable.”