Feeling the pinch of the tight economy, the Black Swamp Arts Festival is relying on the spirit that helped create and sustain the event over the past 17 years.
The biggest blow to the festival's finances was Huntington Bank's decision not to continue as the presenting sponsor.
That's $10,000 gone right there, and support from the Ohio Arts Council, about $5,000 is uncertain given the state budget crisis.
Still festival chairman Dave Shaffer and development chairman Todd Ahrens say the three-day event won't suffer.
"We'll have the same quality festival we've always had, and we'll make it work," Ahrens said.
The festival will be staged Sept. 11 through 13 in downtown Bowling Green.
"The festival was born as a grassroots effort, and this year more than ever we'll rely on that support," Ahrens said.
This is a fallow period for festival fundraising. Typically the Friends of the Festival campaign to raise funds from individuals doesn't start until mid-summer.
 

This year, Ahrens said, those solicitations will go out in May.
"Our individual contributions have continued to go up," he said.
That Huntington pulled its support was not a surprise given the economic conditions, Shaffer said. "There's no hard feelings, no blame. When things get better we hope they'll be back."
In a statement released by Huntington Thursday, Sharon Speyer, Northwest Ohio Regional President explained: "Huntington has a long history of community support in the Bowling Green  market. There are many excellent opportunities that Huntington can support in any given year. As a result, our approach is to continually evaluate where we can have the greatest impact on the community and our business. This year, we have chosen to allocate our resources to other worthy community activities and organizations in the Bowling Green area."
Shannon K. Loar-Tenney, regional marketing manager for the bank, said the company was working directly with those other entities and would publicize those efforts later.
Huntington had been the presenting sponsor for the past two years, following its acquisition of Sky Financial. It had also been presenting sponsor early in the festival's life, but dropped that underwriting in 1997. Mid-Am Bank, which later became Sky, took over the presenting sponsor role in 1998.
But Kelly Wicks, the performing arts chair who has been involved since the inception, said the festival intentionally has never become overly dependent on one big corporate sponsor.
The event costs about $150,000 a year to stage. Funding has come in equal parts from corporate and individual contributions; funds generated by the art show for entry fees and booth space rental and food vendor fees; and from sale of beer and other beverages and festival paraphernalia.
Ahrens said the festival organization has remained an all-volunteer effort. "We didn't want to hire an executive director." That would change the character of the festival.
"When you start paying people, you have to run it like a business," Shaffer said. Instead the festival focuses on what's best for the artists, the performers and festival attendees. "We make decisions on what will make them happy."
"The community feels an ownership with the festival because of how it's developed," Ahrens said. "People feel it's something great for the community, something they can be proud of."
That's evident by the 1,000 or so volunteers who come out every year to help put the show on.
That volunteerism is showing in the number of people who are interested in joining the committee that works year-round to stage the event, Shaffer said.
The various committees are working to make sure budgets are not going up this year, Shaffer said.
"We're being fiscally responsible," Ahrens said, "but that's something the committee has been harping on for many years."