Rain, heat affects Fox Valley fests
Maybe Windmill City Festival this week and the Kane County Fair next week will break the streak of weather-plagued events this year.
Attendance at last week's Swedish Days festival in Geneva was lighter, according to organizers, due to high heat. The festival opened on a record-breaking 97-degree day, followed by four more days of above-average, 90-degree-plus weather. And Saturday night it rained.
"Sunday was the best (attended) because the weather was gorgeous" said Sandy Portincaso, public relations and events coordinator for the chamber. The chamber estimates that fewer than 250,000 people visited during the six-day run that ended June 28. It judges attendance by counting the crowd at the first night's main-stage entertainment and extrapolating it.
Swedish Days makes its money from sponsorships, booth rentals, donations and a carnival. Revenue from the first three was down due to the state of the economy, according to the chamber. Admission to the downtown party is free.
Throughout the week, food vendors said crowds were down, and those there wanted to buy cold things such as shaved ice. But Portincaso noted that the heat may have been a blessing for stores and restaurants near the festival as people visited the air-conditioned emporiums for a break from the heat.
If you're a vendor at one of Joy Meierhans' festivals, don't even think about not showing up because it is raining. "Good luck next time they want to be in," is how the Pride of the Fox RiverFest organizer put it.
And she lives by an axiom her grandmother taught her: "Rain before 7, shine at 11."
Attendance at this year's RiverFest in St. Charles was "good," she said, even better than last year's, when it rained on two days and there was a tornado warning. This despite a Saturday morning bout of rain that would have made arks, not dragon boats, a more apropos form of watercraft.
The weather turned on a dime at 1 p.m., into a beautiful 70-degree sunny day. And the crowds came forth, said Meierhans, a professional festival organizer for 30 years. Overall, she estimates about 45,000 people visited Pride of the Fox during its June 12 to 14 run. There is no official count since the festival does not charge for admission and takes place at six sites. It is based on the sites' managers' estimates.
Rain does not affect the festival's finances much, because most of its revenue comes from sponsorships, a beverage contract and booth rental, she said. The rentals are flat-rate, not commission-based, unlike the carnival and the pony rides.
Meierhans blames broadcast media for "wussifying" festival-goers with gloom-and-doom talk about the weather, whether it is rain or heat.
And if she had to choose rain or heat, Meierhans picked heat. Then she changed her mind.
"When rain stops, it can get gorgeous in an hour," she said.
Windmill City Festival is this Friday through Sunday in Batavia. AccuWeather is forecasting sunshine during the days and thunderstorms in the evenings.