ORANGE PARK – Following a successful rendition of the first annual Cocoa and Carols, Concert on the Green has big plans moving forward as the calendar year shifts to 2023.

Sights, sounds, and senses from the event included the warm taste of fresh-to-serve hot chocolate, various food trucks serving a variety of items including anything from classic American fare to ice cream and Latin tacos, and of course, over a dozen elementary, middle, and high school choirs and bands performing favorite Christmas carols for their families and friends, the event was family-friendly fun for the whole community.

The event capped the nonprofit’s ambitious year. It also prompted organizers to include it in this year’s schedule.

There, at a meeting with a yet-to-be-announced date to be held either this week or the next, the trio of decision-makers will elect whether or not to bring back the event in 2023.

The popular event is an odds-on favorite to return to the town during the upcoming year, but the decision on whether or not to pull the trigger on the festival-style holiday event will likely be based upon one major factor – logistics, according to David Kleinik, who serves on the board of directors.

“We didn’t receive any negative feedback (on Cocoa and Carols) It’s more of, you know, how much would the town allot for resources, and how many more police and fire do we need on-site for safety purposes? You know, just general things, but for the most part, I feel like we did well with it,” Kleinik said. In a surprising caveat, Concert on the Green will not move forward with plans to hold its biggest annual spring concert, which is the Memorial Day Concert on the Green.

In its place, the board of directors envisions a smaller, separate early spring concert, and they’re not wasting their time in piecing together plans for the event which will also likely be held in Orange Park.

News of the cancellation, however, does not necessarily mean the big-time event will not return in the future.

No further plans have been made at this time, according to Kleinik.

The fundamental reason for canceling the event on the kickoff weekend of summer is that the nonprofit has reconsidered their operating model, Kleinik said.

“You know, COVID has affected a lot of nonprofits in Clay County. We got hit, too, so we’ve looked at how the charity is built. The mission is to bring arts and music to the county and give scholarships and grants to schools. We’ve looked at the way our charity is built, and our mission, and with COVID and the rebuilding we’re doing, we’ve really assessed bringing the symphony to Clay County. So, right now, we are not going to be doing our Memorial Day concert,” he said.

Concert on the Green will instead shift their focus to smaller concerts such as Cocoas and Carols and Rocking on the River.

Concert on the Green also will continue its program to provide instruments to local schools. “That way, we can keep giving heavily for scholarships and school grants,” he said.

With Clay County both being threatened by hurricanes and lacking an indoor theater, problems exist in the world of a nonprofit attempting to schedule an outdoor event, which can at times be a logistical nightmare.

“In the past five or six years, I would say that Concert on the Green has been canceled due to a hurricane or major rain formation two or three of those times. You can’t really get insurance for an event like that,” Kleinik said.

By sticking to smaller, more budget-friendly events, the nonprofit will have more rainy day funds, and with better financial backing, the Concert on the Green can then better perform its base function: arts, music, student scholarships and school grants.

“If we go to smaller events and we cancel one, we can still have our sponsors piggyback onto that. If they’re happy, we’re happy,” he said.