Council Skeptical About Second River Fest

“It was mostly a success,” Carl White began in his address to City Council Tuesday. White, along with other employees of the City of San Angelo and additional key local partners, planned and hosted River Fest on Oct. 18-19 last year. Now, the City Parks Director is seeking direction from Council on whether to make the River Fest an annual event.

“The objectives starting out were to celebrate the improvements along the river…as well, we wanted to combine with that the 100th anniversary celebration of Santa Fe Park,” White said.

As a first-year event, the River Fest had its successes and shortfalls, particularly in the area of finance. With a humble goal of a financial break-even, River Fest organizers sought sponsorships and donations to fund the various events the fest encompassed, while offering low-cost entertainment to attendees through a number of free activities alongside ticketed ones.

Competing events, bad weather and last-minute cancellations posed challenges to the coordinators, and ultimately the fest pushed City Parks department into the red with a $7,500 deficit. While White suggests that lessons learned will guide the planning compass should the River Fest indeed become annual, City Council seemed reluctant discuss any sort of approval of an event whose initial run saw loss.

“You’re asking us to approve something on an annual basis that we took a $7,500 loss on,” Councilwoman Charlotte Farmer stated firmly. “I have to ask, where do you plan to get the $7,500 to make up this loss and what kinds of provisions would you build in next year so the city is not out the expense?”

White responded that his ambition would be a more rigorous seeking of sponsorship and that his department may request that Council authorize using “hot dollars”, or money the city accrues from hotel and motel taxes to help fund the event if necessary. The City had requested the use of some of these funds for last year’s River Fest, however Council was not initially willing to part with the cash, and it was agreed that City Parks would shoulder the burden of costs incurred.

“I’m not for financing this again this year,” Wardlaw said, a sentiment that resonated with other councilmembers.

Councilman Rodney Fleming agreed with Wardlaw, stating, “My understanding…I thought we said no money. We are, we, the city, is paying $7,500 of it, whether it comes out of his budget or it comes out of the general budget, we’re going to pay for this, Fleming said.

“I am not for approving this to do it again unless we get sponsors onboard that are going to sponsor the full amount and take on the burden for this. This is something that the general public needs to pick up…We’re clearly not in the business of promoting concerts…”

Self and Silvas were more open to the idea of providing a bit of financial support, citing the economic impact of attracting others to the city. Crunching numbers from out-of-town registration for the Color Up Run and washer pitching tournament, along with information from the Visitor’s Bureau, the City has come up with an approximate $400,000 that the event brought to the city through visitor’s commerce.

“At the end of the day, I see that $400,000 impact that it brought to the city…$7,500 doesn’t bother me at all,” Silvas said. “I think we’re at a time where we’re trying to bring some activity back to our city—beautiful little city—trying to attract more attention, more tourists. I think this is an investment for that money that could possibly come our way,” he said.

With a mixture of emotion and monetary concerns, the Council was hung on how to move forward. A pressing schedule to begin preparations and seeking sponsorship, however, aided some in the decision making as White explained that time was of the essence if River Fest was to be a success this year.

While Charlotte Farmer had initially suggested reconvening in June to assess the funding progress, White emphasized the importance of authorization for the event for planning now, and Council voted to approve River Fest 2014 without any funding from the City. The meeting will be held in June to discuss the possibility of using hot dollars to cover gaps in sponsorship. The approval passed 5-1.

Approximately 7,000 people attended River Fest last year, most of which have named the Color Up Run as the most memorable event. The successes of the Color Up Run and the washer pitching tournament drew in revenues for charities; $12,000 from the run is earmarked to plant trees along the river, and $1,500 from the tournament has been donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

While both of these activities saw massive participation, other areas floundered, due in part to bad weather and poor logistics. Next year, White intends to tighten up the scope of the River Fest to make it more manageable and to combine the event with the annual Lily Fest. The date will be pushed back to late September or early October in hopes of combating weather concerns.

Additionally, event organizers are seeking to include more diversity in artists in 2014, including booking a Tejano band for a concert. The concerts last year did not fair well, part of which may be due to a football game that packed the stadium on that Friday night.