City turned out for Riverfest

Belated congratulations to the Wichita River Festival for its record 385,000 crowd and increased button sales. True, the May festival was fortune’s favorite this year, having booked rising star Chris Daughtry and enjoying near perfect weather. The unveiling of the Keeper of the Plains Plaza was another new draw and crowd-pleaser. But the 36th festival’s success also was a vote of public confidence in the community’s signature get-together. Here’s wishing it many more great years, as well as many more sponsors, events, volunteers, name acts.æ.æ.æ.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

5 Comments

  1. Republican
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 9:46 am | Permalink

    Quote from the story:”The festival, which ran May 11-19, also enjoyed seasonal temperatures throughout, and only one weekday morning saw rain.”

    I would say this would be the largest contributor for the increased attendance.

  2. Ben
    Posted July 9, 2007 at 9:51 am | Permalink

    I agree Republican. Weather was ‘picture-postcard’. My family had a great time.

  3. JWink
    Posted July 10, 2007 at 8:18 am | Permalink

    I have said this each year … the Wichita River Festival needs to be held during the full month of June AFTER SCHOOL IS OUT.

    The present schedule coincides and interferes with final exam week at our Wichita and Kansas high schools.

    Also, there is no point in attracting crowds of onlookers to downtown Wichita all in one unmanagable mass. Does Wal-Mart want to attract large groups of customers all at one time? Or does Wal-Mart want to attract steady streams of customers over their full working day?

    Fireworks should be reserved for Lawrence-Dumont baseball games presuming we continue to have baseball teams. The Festival shouldn’t use fireworks for a crutch to show large attendance.

    The name of the festival should be changed to: “Wichita’s lazy, hazy days of summer festival.” Schedule individual festival programs throughout June so they are not all scheduled at the same time.

    Finally, many people commented crowds were noticably smaller this year than previous good weather years. I can’t explain the attendance numbers to the contrary. Perhaps festival buttons are pre-sold to retail businesses for resale. If so, the question is — how many festival buttons remained unsold by the secondary retail businesses at the conclusion of the festival?

  4. Ben
    Posted July 10, 2007 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    I disagree JWink. After June it gets just too damn hot. In fact, I’d be inclined to go a couple of weeks earlier.

  5. JWink
    Posted July 10, 2007 at 1:20 pm | Permalink

    Ben: My main two points were:

    1) SHOULDN’T INTERFERE WITH FINAL TESTS DURING LAST TWO WEEKS OF AREA HIGH SCHOOLS, AND

    2) SPREAD ACTIVITIES OVER, SAY, THREE OR FOUR WEEKS SO AS NOT TO CONCENTRATE CROWDS SO MUCH.

    I see your point about doing the festival in late April or early May to avoid tests in high schools.

    But month of June would draw families to Wichita from suburbs and out-state towns after schools are out.

    Regarding temperatures, can’t predict bad weather. Tornadoes are generally in April/May.

    But today on July 10th, I was downtown on business this AM. Afterward, during the noon hour, I walked around downtown for about an hour. Nice comfortable day, about 90 degrees and I think relatively low humidity. Unfortunately, very few people walking downtown today for some reason.

    The library’s book sale doesn’t have to be at the same time as a baseball game and carnival. In fact, I enjoy all three but can only attend one thing at a time.

    I would like to see some thoughts expressed on this.