THE future of Murwillumbah's favourite event is under a cloud after a dispute between the organising committee and managers of the Banana Festival erupted last week.

Banana Festival volunteers staged a mass walkout at a meeting with the Rotary Club of Murwillumbah Central (RCMC) last Thursday, in protest against a drive by Rotary to change the name of the event to The Harvest Festival.

Established in 1956, the Banana Festival is believed to be one of the longest running regional festivals in the country and a staple on the Tweed calendar come the last week of August.

RCMC executive secretary Denis Hallworth said a decision on the future of Rotary's involvement in the festival would be made at a closed meeting of members tonight.

"The club has not yet made a decision on any future actions,” Mr Hallworth said.

Mr Hallworth said the club had become involved in the festival some 10 years ago after the event's organising committee sought Rotary's assistance after it was unable to secure insurance.

Rotary agreed to include the festival under its insurance scheme but could only do so on the proviso the former Banana Festival Committee Inc dissolve, with all management and control to rest with the club.

"The festival is run purely with volunteers from the public helping Rotary - obviously we could not and cannot do it ourselves,” Mr Hallworth said.

He said the event cost between $40,000 and $50,000 to stage, with Rotary receiving "not one dollar”.

However, the club has been forced to look for new ways to grow the festival after losing more than half of its funding from Tweed Shire Council last year.

"We applied for an increase in funding but received a decrease - less than half (of the previous year's sponsorship),” Mr Hallworth said.

"We were told unless we became more professional and it was run in a much better way, we would not receive sponsorship in the future.”

He said the club had engaged the services of a professional fundraiser who suggested the name change as a way of securing new sponsorship.

But the proposal was rejected by the festival's organising committee and slammed in social media, which went into meltdown over the weekend.

Mt Warning Tours director Michael Simmons, who also represents the Tweed Experiences Network and its 30 members, called for unity, saying the community needed to work together to save the festival.

"The Rotary organisation has done a fantastic job for so long,” Mr Simmons said.

"There are a number of organisations that could work together to make the festival a reality again. There are very talented, very enthusiastic people in the Tweed. We need to use this as a catalyst for unity.”