Ribfest nets $800,000 for area charities

An extra day of activities and a $2 increase in ticket prices added up to record profits for Naperville's annual Fourth of July holiday festival.

Ribfest organizers from the Naperville Exchange Club said today they will donate roughly $800,000 generated by the five-day festival to more than 50 local charities that work to fight child and spousal abuse. Last year, the group allocated slightly more than $600,000.

Exchange Club President Mike McManus said the group has allocated more than $8 million over the event's 20-year history.

Normally a four-day festival, organizers added an extra day this year's because July 4 fell on a Wednesday and they wanted to capture the larger weekend crowds. Organizers also boosted ticket prices for the first time in a couple years, which helped add to the bottom line.

McManus said ticket prices will not increase next year.

Don Emery, chairman of next year's Ribfest, said the club plans to scale the festival back to four days, running from July 3 to July 6, instead of the first four days of the month as usual.

The new scenario will create some logistical issues because the festival usually caps off the Fourth of July with a fireworks display, free admission to the park in the evening and a performance by the main stage headliner in the early afternoon. It's also usually the event's final day.

Next year the holiday will fall on the festival's second day, a Friday, and organizers are reluctant to offer free admission that night.

"Friday night is a mission critical day for us because we have to have a big (revenue) day," Emery said. "If we do it next year like we've done it in the past, we run the risk of it not being a huge revenue day."

The city council has the final say on determining the dates for the event, but no one has hinted the schedule will pose a problem.

Emery said several offers have been put out to potential main stage headliners for the coming year and he expects to have some signed by November.

"That allows us to move forward faster with some of our sponsorship stuff," he said. "We can get skyboxes sold earlier if sponsors know who's playing what nights."

McManus said everything's going smoothly in preparation for next year's event, but the club is keeping a close eye on Naperville Unit District 203's plans to possibly rebuild Naperville Central High School on the Knoch Park land they use to stage the festival.

"Obviously what the school district and park district do will have a bearing on the event's future," he said. "I can't say one way or the other if we'd back anything because there are so many plans out there right now."

Naperville Cemetery also may expand into the park area in 2010, which could create a space crunch that could only be rectified by a move elsewhere in the city.

McManus said organizers are examining several different sites within the city limits.