White Center's eight-decade run of summer festivals will be broken this year due to volunteer burnout.

A group of five stalwarts, who've been instrumental in keeping July Jubilee Days going for the past 20 years, reluctantly voted to cancel the 2007 festival. After two decades of planning, organizing and pulling off July Jubilee Days, their reserves are tapped.

Unfortunately a new team has not stepped forward to learn the ropes of how to get permits from King County, deal with vendors, seek street closures, obtain security, reserve portable toilets and the hundreds of other matters and follow-up details involved in staging Jubilee Days.

"We've had great volunteers throughout," said Steve Teasley, who's helped organize the annual event since 1988. "But we've gotten to the point we just don't have the energy anymore."

Gerry Robison, who's volunteered since 1989, agreed.

"It's too much responsibility for one person," Robison said. "It's hard to find people to take on the whole task."

Running July Jubilee Days is a big job. Besides arranging booth space for vendors, businesses and organizations for the street fair, there are two stages with back-to-back entertainment for two days. Over the years, Jubilee Days has featured a few big names, such as Merrilee Rush, the Wailers and the Kingsmen.

Jubilee Days also consists of a parade, pancake breakfast, street dance, golf tournament and a beer garden.

"Jubilee Days has one of the biggest carnivals in King County," said Rick Bragg, who's volunteered for the annual festival since 1986. The rides usually roll for four days.

Jubilee Days' expenses grow while corporate sponsorships have been hard to come by.

"That's been a problem," Bragg said. "There are no large companies here."

Other times big business will give a $5,000 donation one year but be able to contribute only $500 a few years later.

Many of the volunteers have businesses of their own, which lose potential revenue when there's festival work to be done.

Because White Center is unincorporated, there's no municipal money available so Jubilee Days is staffed entirely by volunteers, Teasley said. By comparison, the City of Burien pays someone to run its Strawberry Festival.

"People haven't learned to volunteer," said Mickey Kraut, who's coordinated vendors at Jubilee Days for about 16 years. People are less inclined to offer their work for free these days. They want to be paid for their services, she said.

"People don't feel as connected to the community as they used to," offered Gerry Robison. "It's the same with business."

Another issue is the changing ethnic makeup of North Highline.

Like White Center, Jubilee Days was started by white people. But the community has become more Asian and Latino, more Russian and East African. Some of the newer residents attend but most seem to avoid Jubilee Days.

"We printed Jubilee Days posters in Cambodian, Vietnamese and Spanish," Bragg said. "Still they didn't come."

However, as Robison pointed out, North Highline's newer ethnic groups organize their own festivals now. Most of the people who attend White Center's annual Cinco de Mayo celebration are Hispanic, he said.

All agreed Jubilee Days needs fresh leadership. They hope by skipping the festivities this summer, people will miss it and step forward to revitalize the festival for summer 2008.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.