Without sufficient money and volunteers, the Ames community’s annual Ginkgo Festival was canceled this year.

Star Rankin, chairwoman of the Ginkgo Festival Committee, said many of the core people involved with it in the past have moved out of the area or have become burnt out with the planning.

Without volunteers, there were not enough people to raise the money needed to put on the weekend celebration, she said.

Rankin said she would rather not put on a festival for a half day when it is supposed to last all weekend.

“If we are going to do it, we are going to do it right and make it fun and funny,” she said.

The committee plans to focus on fund raising this year and recruiting new volunteers.

However, the “virtual parade,” one of the Ginkgo Festival’s main attractions, still will be held downtown this summer, she said.

In the virtual parade, spectators walk along the street to view the entries rather than the traditional parade format of watching floats and bands go by.

“We wanted to keep some parts of the festival so the idea will stay fresh in people’s minds,” Rankin said.

“The parade is creative, funny and an all-around fun event,” she said.

Rankin said it was possible to keep the parade because it can be organized with few volunteers.

Emil Peterson, parade director, said if everything comes together, the parade will be held July 24.

“As long as the Main Street district and Ginkgo Festival Committee approve the day, it will happen then,” he said.

Peterson said the virtual parade is a lot of “organized goofiness.”

“The parade is just a nice combination of traditional displays and ones that would not normally be able to be in parades for different reasons,” he said.

Peterson said he hopes businesses and groups that participated in the parade in previous years will join again this year.

The Ginkgo Festival was started five years ago in an attempt to turn the negative image of the Ginkgo trees along Main Street into a positive one.

Nikki Peterson, program manager for the Ames Chamber of Commerce, said female ginkgo trees produce berries with a bad smell that are unattractive when they fall on the ground.

The city was planning to remove the trees, but community members started a movement to preserve them.

So rather than getting rid of the trees, the city decided to harvest the berries before they ripened, Nikki Peterson said.

The Ginkgo Festival then was created by a committee that wanted to have a community celebration.

“This seemed like a wonderful reason to celebrate the trees,” Nikki Peterson said.

Instead of feeling disappointed about the festival being canceled, she said residents should feel optimistic the committee is bringing back the essential components of the parade.