Yet another new host hotel for annual gathering of Bears

The 2010 Bear Bust will return to Orlando.

For the 2009 event, the Bears of Central Florida (BOCF) moved the annual get-together from downtown Orlando to Kissimmee, choosing the Clarion Resort as the host hotel. This moved sparked the anger of local bears who felt Kissimmee was too far to travel for Bear Bust. The controversy sparked a split of the group, creating Bears, Cubs, Chubbies and Chasers (BC3), which held its own event based out of the Parliament House on the same weekend. Both groups reported successful events with solid attendance.

In October of 2009, last year’s BOCF president Tim Limbauch told Watermark they were already planning to return to the Clarion for Bear Bust 2010.

BBustStD_123824097.gifHowever, current BOCF president Jamie Beverly posted a message on the BOCF web site this week reporting that the Clarion “is no longer under the management /franchise of Choice Hotels,” the group is in negotiations with a new host hotel for 2010 which “will be in  Orlando and much closer to Central Florida attractions.”

Beverly did not say why the change in management led to a change in venue. He is asking people to cancel their reservations at the Clarion and promised to send “additional information out within the next week  as soon as we have firm commitments and contracts in place.”

The upcoming event would mark the 20th anniversary of Bear Bust. It’s scheduled for Oct. 14 – 17.

Beverly and the Clarion have not responded to requests for comment.

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