Well, I don't shock easily, but I must say that as someone who plans a lot of events myself in my own community, I'm simply staggered that nobody on the Festival committee had the courtesy to call or email the actors and let them know ahead of time about a decision of this magnitude.
I had also always thought that the actors were kept in the loop of the date planning for each year's Festival. Another illusion shattered.
Given these revelations, I'm starting to think it might be just as well to say "Farewell" to the current Festival committee and let folks who know how to do their jobs take over. (Just my opinion, quite honestly... I know it's been a thankless job for years, but if you're not going to do it right, why bother? which presumably is the line of thinking that led to declaring this year the "Farewell" Festival.)
I do like KLS' spin on it as being like when a character would say "farewell" on the series and then the same actor would reappear shortly thereafter in a new role!
Gothick