Elberta German Sausage Festival

08/24/2026

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING THE FUTURE OF THE ELBERTA GERMAN SAUSAGE FESTIVAL

The Town of Elberta has recently expressed their preference that Town employees and members of the municipal volunteer fire department coordinate and operate the festival in the future, beginning with the October 2026 festival, instead of an organization coordinating it. Elberta Community Partners has decided to grant this request. While we do feel that ECP is better suited to manage this event due to our leadership's nearly 100-year combined experience as members of the Elberta Volunteer Fire Department and managing the festival, we also feel that it is in nobody's best interest to fight over what is a community event as much as it is a fundraiser that primarily benefits the fire department that the Town now controls as of August 2025. The Town simply feels that it is in everyone’s best interest that they and the municipal fire department, which the event primarily benefits, manage it moving forward.

To be clear, the event will still benefit the town fire department as it always has. It will simply now be managed by the Town and the fire department, instead of a non-profit organization. The festival had always been managed by the fire department prior to it becoming a municipal fire department last year.

Over the next few weeks or so, we will work with the Town on an orderly transfer of festival operations. The operation of the festival will be turned over to the Town as a clean slate for them to operate it as they wish. We had not yet hit our trigger dates for entering into agreements with various suppliers, entertainment, etc. for October 2026, so there will be no concern of actions taken by Elberta Community Partners forcing anything upon the Town or causing unnecessary financial strain. We wish nothing but the best for this event, and we would never do anything to harm something that we, and many others, have all worked so hard over the past almost 3 decades to help build. Doing so would not only be wrong, it would also be very unfair to the fire department.

As part of our efforts to comply in every way we can with the Town’s request, we will take various actions. Funds held in the festival accounts held by EVFD Inc and ECP will be turned over to the Town as soon as practicable and written agreements are in place. ECP will also work with the Town to transfer trademarks and wordmarks held by ECP for the festival to the Town. Our intent is to complete this transfer of operations as quickly as possible.

I would like to take this opportunity to voice ECP’s continuing support of the Town of Elberta Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Vanbrimmer and Deputy Chief Staimpel are exceptional men, and have a great passion for what they do. Both of them basically grew up in the firehouse, and their leadership of the fire department should make the entire community proud. We encourage everyone to continue to support the department, and whatever form this event continues as under control of the Town of Elberta. We also encourage you to make a difference in your community by volunteering! The fire department is always looking for new members, and has outstanding leadership in place to develop them. There is a place for everyone, young and….maybe not so young.

To our vendors and sponsors: Presently, we do have a verbal agreement from the Town that they intend to honor the terms and conditions that Arts & Crafts Vendors agreed to when submitting their application. We intend to transfer control of the new phone app and all information to the Town when we have a written agreement. This should be fairly seamless for you. As for our food vendors, we are still awaiting word on whether the Town will still be able to honor the terms that you agreed to. We will keep everyone updated. Finally, as for our sponsors, all sponsors have been refunded. We are unsure as to whether or not there will be a sponsorship program under the Town, and if so, what it may consist of. We encourage anyone with questions to email [email protected] for more information.

The current organizers have worked tirelessly for years to improve and modernize the festival with the goal of producing an event our community could be proud of, while also supporting a great cause. While this closes one chapter of history for the festival, we hope that it opens a new and prosperous chapter for it in the future under control of the Town of Elberta. We have always respected the work that those that came before us put into this event to lay the foundation for what we have been able to accomplish presently, and have always kept that in mind by honoring the festival. As kids, we all grew up attending the festival and remembering how special it is, and we always wanted to make it special for future generations. We genuinely hope that the same respect is carried forward in the operation of this event in the future.

While Elberta Community Partners will no longer operate the Elberta German Sausage Festival, we look forward to working with the Town of Elberta in the future on other initiatives for the Elberta community.

Sincerely,

Seth Fuller
Chairman
Elberta Community Partners
Elberta German Sausage Festival

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07/28/2026

We're partnering with BJ's, which will open this fall in Foley, to raise money for the Town of Elberta Volunteer Fire Department! If you plan on getting a membership, now is the time; 100% of the money we receive from this will be donated to the fire department. Please visit this link to signup for your BJ's membership: http://www.bjs.com/partners/elbertavolunteerfiredept

Thank you for supporting your local fire department!

07/23/2026

Just a friendly reminder that we are accepting applications for sponsors. If your business would like some exposure at our event, submit your application at https://www.elbertacp.org/egsfsponsor

As Elberta Community Partners is a registered 501(c)(3), your sponsorship is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

07/21/2026

As we mentioned after the March 2026 Festival, our festival operations are being transferred from the 501(c)(4) non profit corporation Elberta Volunteer Fire Department, Inc to the newly formed 501(c)(3) non profit charitable corporation Elberta Community Partners (Alabama charitable organization registration AL26-302; IRS EIN 41-4587196). This change was partially set in motion by the transfer of fire protection services from EVFD Inc to the Town of Elberta.

As the same Board of Directors controls both organizations, this has facilitated a fairly seamless transfer of operations thus far. However, to those of you wonderful folks that support this event twice a year, we feel that we owe you a reminder of what you're supporting, and as much transparency as possible.

To that end, we have created a transparency page. You can visit this page at https://www.elbertacp.org/transparency - here, you can see information about how your contributions are used, view our governing documents, financial reports, and even take a live look at all ECP bank account registers to see what money comes in and goes out. Since these accounts are new, there isn't much there now, but we encourage you to visit whenever you're curious.

We're an open book. We will never have anything to hide from the public that so generously supports this event. We are here for you, the community, and we want to earn your trust.

Ecp Page on MyElberta. Your local hub for community updates and information.

07/19/2026

We work with the young men at the Baldwin County Sheriff Boys Ranch every festival. These same kids attend our local Elberta schools. They are such a pleasure to be around, and I’m here to tell you, they can put down A LOT of Elberta Pizza! We hope you will consider helping them out.

07/04/2026

We hope you all have a safe and happy Independence Day!

07/03/2026

If you weren’t at Independence in the Park last night, you missed an amazing show!

07/02/2026

Happy Birthday Randy!

07/01/2026

The October 2026 Sponsorship Application is now OPEN! If your business would like to be featured as a sponsor, please visit https://www.elbertacp.org/egsfsponsor, or use our mobile app (available in the App Store and Google Play), to submit your application. Sponsorships are payable via card, check, or ACH. Elberta Community Partners is a 501(c)(3) organization that manages the festival, so all sponsorships are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, and all sponsors will receive documentation from us. Thank you for your continued support of this event, and our community!

This app is for Elberta German Sausage Festival attendees and vendors.