A popular Nova Scotia boat festival has been cancelled because of a shortage of volunteers.

The Mahone Bay Classic Boat Festival had drawn thousands of visitors to the south shore community for two decades. As many as 50,000 tourists had taken in the annual mid-summer festival in recent years.

But the festival's chairman said Tuesday that the weekend show won't go on.

"It's a shame, a real shame," said David Devenne.

He said a big part of the problem is an aging population with less time to devote to the huge task of mounting the festival each year.

"We have to face the realities of the changing profile in Mahone Bay," he said. "It takes hundreds of hours of work on the part of that committee to make the festival happen at the end of July."

The Mahone Bay Classic had been organized and run since 1989 by a non-profit society dedicated to "preserving and promoting the rich wooden boat heritage of Nova Scotia's South Shore," according to the festival's website.

There was no admission charged for the festival, which provided a vital cash injection for sections of the community reliant on the tourist trade.

Mahone Bay has a population of 900. It takes 12 volunteers several months to plan the annual event.

Over the boat show's 20-year run, just about everybody interested had lent a hand.

"There is volunteer burn out for sure," Devenne said.

Without volunteers to organize the event, run the raffles and operate the festival, he couldn't go forward with plans to hold it over the last weekend in July.

One past volunteer said she was disappointed the boat show would not go ahead for 2010.

Fran O'Hangan runs the Mug and Anchor Pub in Mahone Bay.

"I know there's a lot of volunteer burnout right about now," she said Tuesday. "It's really going to hurt."

O'Hangan said businesses like hers relied on the festival to draw customers.

"It's going to be a big loss for us, I think especially people in the food-service industry in this town. We are a drive-to destination, winter's are tough already - that's a huge cash-flow for us," she said.

Devenne had held a public meeting on Feb. 22 to recruit volunteers, saying the 2010 festival looked set to be "one of the best ever presented."

It had planned for a parade of sail, the Fast and Furious race, where participants had four hours to build a boat before racing it, and several children's events.