Taste of Minnesota organizers said Tuesday they don’t know where the popular music and food festival will be held this year but it won’t be at the Washington County Fairgrounds.

About 40 residents of Baytown Township showed up at the town board meeting Monday night to raise concerns about the possibility of the summer festival relocating to the fairgrounds.

Officials from A Taste of Minnesota and the Washington County Agricultural Society, the entity that owns the fairgrounds, had proposed moving the festival to the Baytown site.

The festival was held for a few years at Harriet Island in St. Paul, but was forced to move to the Carver County Fairgrounds in Waconia last year because of Mississippi River flooding.

Taste of Minnesota organizer Linda Maddox said other venues are being considered, but she wouldn’t divulge their locations. She also said she may consider holding the festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds in the future.

But township officials said Taste organizers may have a hard sell based on comments and emails from residents.

Among the issues raised at Monday night’s meeting: parking, noise, lighting, traffic, crowd control, fireworks and alcohol sales.

“The majority of people weren’t in favor of it,” said Town Board Chairman Kent Grandlienard. “And we, the town board, represent the people who live in the community. The issues would be the same for 2016; the process would be the same. No one stood up last night and said, ‘Hey, we want this to come to Baytown.’ We asked them last night, ‘What’s in it for Baytown?’ We would have all the impact and no financial gain from this.”

Taste organizers argued that local restaurants and gas stations would benefit from sales to festival-goers, Grandlienard said. “They thought we had bars or restaurants or gas stations,” he said. “We don’t have any businesses like that would benefit.”

Grandlienard said the township doesn’t generally allow alcohol to be sold at the fairgrounds; it makes exceptions for two nonprofit organizations — the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — during the county fair.

“Why would Baytown allow it for somebody like Taste — a for-profit entity?” he said.

The Washington County Agricultural Society recently added 23 acres to its 89-acre property in Baytown Township and has been trying to expand the number of events held at the fairgrounds. Those events include — in addition to the five-day fair in late July-early August — dog and horse shows, flea markets and the annual Shepherd’s Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival. About 13,000 people attended 131 events at the fairgrounds in 2014.

“We’re sympathetic to the fair board, in terms of them trying to find some events, but I’m not quite sure that (A Taste of Minnesota) fits the intent of the ag society statute,” Grandlienard said. He said events permitted at the fairgrounds are more limited in scope and scale and more related to agriculture.

Mary Divine can be reached at 651-228-5443. Follow her at twitter.com/MaryEDivine.