For over half a century, the three-day Waterfowl Festival in Easton has celebrated the unique culture and natural beauty of the Eastern Shore. As the Festival marks its 53rd year in 2024, it welcomes newly appointed Executive Director Deena Deese Kilmon, full of ideas on expanding upon traditions while ushering it into a new era.
The Spy asked Kilmon to share her connection to the Waterfowl Festival’s mission and her vision for enhancing its impact through expanded partnerships, fresh programming, and increased community engagement.
Having raised her family on the Eastern Shore, Kilmon is uniquely aware of the Festival’s impact on the community, which extends beyond economics. She uses the Talbot County school system as an example. Besides getting Thursday and Friday off during the Festival set up and opening day, the children have grown up encouraged to appreciate the natural world and what’s around them, and that, she believes, affects the future of the Eastern Shore. “People graduate and leave,” Kilmon said, “they go to the city, and they do this and the other. And then they come back here to raise their children. Why did they do that? It’s because of their connection to nature and this area. And the Waterfowl Festival has been part of that culture.”
For Kilmon, taking the helm as Executive Director feels like a coming home. As a 9th grader in North Carolina, she was drawn to this region after reading James Michener’s novel Chesapeake. “From that moment, I was certain I would be part of the legacy here in Talbot County and around the Chesapeake Bay,” Kilmon said. “I didn’t know how exactly, but I just knew it would happen.”
A few years later, a random encounter during college solidified that conviction: She met a guy at a party wearing a St. Michaels sweatshirt. ” I immediately knew he was part of my destiny. A year later, we were dating; two years later, we were married. Eventually, we moved here, raised our children, and this became our life.”
In her work capacity, Kilmon has a wide range of experience in marketing, brand management, and advertising, most recently having served as Director of Strategic Initiatives for Easton Economic Development Corporation. At one time, she was even the owner of Foxy’s Harbor Grille in St. Michaels. Fast forward to today, and Kilmon’s new role allows her to tie her professional skills to the personal connection she’s serendipitously made to Chesapeake Bay’s unique heritage.
Certainly, anyone living on the Shore in November cannot help but be part of the heritage and be caught up in the three-day festivities, but less known is the almost $6 million impact that the Festival has raised over the years for the dozens of organizations committed to wildlife conservation. Some of the most recent grantees include NC Wildlife Commission, Phillips Wharf Environmental Center, Ducks Unlimited, Pickering Creek, Talbot County Schools, Talbot County 4-H, Ward Foundation, Wildfowl Trust of North America, Raptor Trust of NJ, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Havre de Grace Decoy Museum, J. Millard Tawes Museum, to name only a few.
While deeply respectful of this legacy, Kilmon is enthusiastic about evolving the Festival to remain relevant and engaging for modern audiences. “We’re always looking at trends in the industry to see what people are doing at festivals,” she said. “Can we incorporate some of those things here? Maybe we can, maybe we can’t. But we’re always looking at that.”
Building partnerships that align with the Festival’s conservation spirit is central to Kilmon’s vision. She cited the recent addition of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy building as the Festival’s photography venue as an example of this approach. Then, there was the lobster food truck. “I heard the lobster truck was a big, big hit,” said Kilmon. We don’t have lobsters in the Chesapeake Bay, but for whatever reason, that food truck was a major hit this past year. It’s trending at breweries all over the Eastern Shore!”
Using surveys and listening to what people want to see allows the Festival to evolve. “We’ve been talking to new partners about bringing in some fun new ideas. There will also be some old things returning, and some venues will be expanded. They’ll definitely be an expansion of some music venues,” she said.
Despite numerous requests and evident excitement, Kilmon is not quite ready to reveal any of these plans. However, she can say that her focus is now on strengthening ties with neighboring communities like St. Michaels, Cambridge, and even Somerset County, home to the expansive Wellington Wildlife Management Area project supported by the Festival. “How do we bridge that gap between that county and our county?” Kilmon said. “Those are going to be what we work on throughout the year.”
Part of that focus also involves bringing in local partners who are not just committed over the three days. “We want them year-round,” said Kilmon. “We would like to expand on those relationships throughout the year.” She also said that the Festival is currently accepting applications for vendors, artists, exhibitors, and more. “Now is the time to contact us if you want to be involved at all,” she urged.
The historic Waterfowl Building itself presents an opportunity for increased civic integration and celebration of the Festival’s legacy.
Kilmon envisions transforming parts of the space into a museum-like atmosphere where visitors can immerse themselves in the Festival’s heritage through artifacts and exhibitions. “I would like to start with a couple of rooms and invite them in to see a couple of things,” Kilmon described. “Even if a visitor can’t be here in November, they will still be able to get the spirit of the Festival.” She added, “We want to be that bridge between the Academy Art Museum, Visitor Center, and other local attractions.”
Kilmon also plans to explore innovative ways for community organizations to utilize the building year-round through mission-aligned partnerships. “Our doors are open for people to let us know how we can support the community,” she said.
It was apparent from our discussions that Kilmon and her team were well in the midst of preparing for the 53rd iteration and for some of the other ideas she wants to see instituted. However, for all these to happen, hundreds of volunteers are needed. “We are taking vendors, artists, and tasting pavilion applications. You can go to our website, waterfowl festival.org, and apply. If what you want to do with the waterfowl festival doesn’t appear to fit in one of those things. You’re welcome to reach out to us directly and see if there’s a fit somewhere else. Anything that you would like to offer, we would like to discuss. So if you have a few hours, we’re happy to bring you in right now.”
Passion and forward-thinking vision are what Deena Kilmon brings to her new job as she takes over the Waterfowl Festival — one that honors its iconic heritage while transcending boundaries to engage more communities in its mission. Whether partnering with underrepresented groups, making the Festival more accessible, or amplifying overlooked artistic voices, Kilmon aims to evolve the programming to celebrate the entire region’s rich tapestry. It’s a job well suited for her.
“The Waterfowl Festival is everything my family stands for — preserving our open spaces, being outside, being tightly tied to our community. That’s who we are as well. We’re boaters, we’re kayakers, we’re hunters, and my daughters are fisherwomen. So it means so much to me to help preserve and conserve our spaces for the future.”
Waterfowl Festival will take place on November 8-10, 2024 The Festival is looking for artists, volunteers, and other partnerships. For more information go to: https://waterfowlfestival.org
Julie Susman, Waterfowl Festival Board Member says
We are delighted to have Deena as our Executive Director. Her experience, passion , vision and leadership skills are just what we need to lead the festival organization.
Paul Rybon says
Waterfowl has always been good at reaching out. It’s reaching in that’s the problem. The participants have always featured white wealthy exhibitors, more of a commercial atmosphere, and expensive stuff out of the reach of those whose lifestyles created the genre.
Sure, a lot of money is generated but it somehow seems circular, contributions from organizations being donated to other organizations that share objectives. The birds simply become another commodity to make money. Town merchants control the quality and quantity of access. National or international content is amalgamated into a generic impersonal mass of mostly ‘come heres’ who get no sense of a local bond.
For instance, the popularity of a lobster shack may be a commercial draw, but contributes nothing to the theme of Waterfowl. Fly casting demonstrations are a fascinating draw for anglers but add nothing to the Waterfowl theme. Whereas a presence of traps, guns, active birds, or videos, lectures, etc. is considered passe. In other words the festival seems to have burst at the seams and lost much of the quaintness that started it all.
The nature of waterfowl appreciation has morphed too. As creatures of art and not a food source, celebration of them as a physical part of our shared story has been subsumed into an ehemeral environmental movement and lost all of its original more organic roots. Bringing in more experts with marketing, organizational, and conceptual pressures can only change the notion of a wildfowl celebration into something different than it’s original purpose to that it becomes nothing more than a venue for the wealthy to spend money and the merchants to make more, so I hope the new directors will keep that thought innd as they continue to stray from the roots of the forgotten folks who celebrated nature in more organic ways.