Meeting Minutes: May 2016

[Christel Manning]

The Economic Development group met on Monday, May 15, 2016, from 6 – 7:30 pm at 20 Grand Ave. Present: Christel, Brenda, Rich P, Lisa F, Diane P, Kathleen F, Clymenza, Lee.  

This meeting was focused on debriefing Riverfest 2016. We had to move to rain date which probably lowered attendance but many things went well: Dancers and dance floor were very cool; loved the new bands and the drumming. Kevin made money; oysters and beer sold out; all dragons were sold and made $100 for CSNA. Running Fox was wonderful. Teens did nice job w. kiddy activities w. no supervision. We had great media coverage from both Ch. 8 TV and NH Register. Set up and take down went smoothly. We raised a total of $2000 (from Brewery Square, Community Foundation, Denali, Mary Wade Home) and spent a little less than $1500, so we stayed well within our budget.

Improvements to make next year: Rethink street closing. Artists were inside marina so we didn’t really make use of street; if we do again maybe use for parking. Clymenza wants to plan a separate art festival on a different date, but we can still have arts and crafts at Riverfest. There was delay between bands, mostly because people were chitchatting instead of moving their equipment off stage; need stage manager to keep things moving. Set up and takedown of dance floor was exhausting. Need to recruit more help, especially young people. Perhaps some of the dancers? Should list all jobs, including set up and take down at beginning of planning process. Attendance was down about 50 percent but it’s not clear how much of that was due to having to cancel original date (we had lots of media coverage for first date but not second) or unstable weather or rain date or competing events, probably a combination. Moving to rain date two weeks later also felt stressful for organizers; we lose momentum. Should consider moving Riverfest to a Saturday with rain date next day Sunday. Must look out for competing events (Rock to Rock bike ride; Freddy Fixer parade; Westville Art walk).