The Downtown Improvement District announced today the winner of this year’s New Events Contest, which invited businesses, organizations, and individuals to submit their best ideas for a chance to receive significant production support for new events in February, March, or April 2017. The Downtown Improvement District is pleased to announce that The Maumee Mary & Joseph Comedy Festival is the winner of this year’s contest.

“The intent of this contest is to encourage year-round usage and engagement Downtown, by offering an incentive for event production during classically less active months,” said Downtown Improvement District President Bill Brown. “Through strategic support we hope to empower our community and create fun, new opportunities with an emphasis on outside-of-the-box events that will contribute to the vibrancy of Downtown Fort Wayne.” The Downtown Improvement District believes that the Comedy Festival will do just that.

The Downtown Improvement District is also pleased to announce that Weather the Fort will also receive support from this initiative, for their upcoming 2017 production. After a successful, inaugural event in February of 2016, Weather the Fort quickly became a success model after attracting over 2,500 attendees in their winter-based event. For more information on these events and the New Events Contest, visit DowntownFortWayne.com.

Thank you to the community for all the positive response and great concepts that were submitted.