It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the discontinuation of the bi-annual Paw Palooza Festival. The decision was an incredibly difficult one, the festival has brought us so much joy and inspired countless friendships since its inception in 2016. In addition to being a weekend of celebrating our love of dogs, Paw Palooza and the many vendors, sponsors and attendees raised important funds for our local animal shelters. In the last seven years, the Agway Foundation has donated more than $100,000 to the Animal Rescue League and the MSPCA thanks to the Paw Palooza Festival.
The decision to cancel the event came after serious deliberation and evaluation of the internal resources required to plan and execute the festival. The logistics involved in planning an event of this magnitude were all-consuming for our small team. Months of planning and coordination before the event took us away from our core business responsibilities and the manpower required to execute during the week leading up to and including the event has been overwhelming. At the same time, Paw Palooza brought together our love of community and our passion for animals.
We remain committed to helping the incredible non-profit organizations that have been our partners in our mission from the start. Plans are taking shape to develop a year-round calendar of events that will engage, educate and delight pet lovers across Cape Cod and beyond. Although we won’t see you at the festival, we hope to see you in our stores where we continue to provide our customers with the best selection of plants, garden and pet supplies available. And who knows what the future may bring—Paw Palooza could rise again!
We would like to thank everyone who has donated their time, goods and support to make Paw Palooza the northeast’s largest and most entertaining dog festival. We will never forget the awe we felt as 15,000 people and pets walked through our festival gates with eager anticipation of the day’s events.
Paw Palooza Cape Cod kicked off it’s first year of raising money and awareness of animal welfare on the Cape back in 2016. The start of an awesome fundraiser that supports both the Animal Rescue League of Boston (ARL) Brewster shelter and the MSPCA of Cape Cod. To date both organizations have benefited from the over $110,000 Paw Palooza has raised the last 3 years!
After planning Paw Palooza 2018, the Agway of Cape Cod Charitable Foundation team realized that in order for the event to have an even bigger impact on the Cape Cod animal welfare community, it was necessary to change to a biennial schedule. 