Riverfest attendance and revenue increased; button sales fell

Wichita Riverfest attendance and revenue increased this year but the total number of buttons sold fell.

The event drew more than 410,000 people this year, up from 380,000 in 2014 according to the festival’s estimates. Most of the increase was due to people returning to the festival multiple times.

That’s because overall button sales fell from 111,000 last year, to 97,000 this year. About 30 percent of the buttons were purchased in advance at the old $5 price but the rest were purchased for $10. That means that, even though fewer buttons were wold, overall button revenue increased by 31 percent.

“This year, we asked people to accept a higher retail price for adult buttons so that we could create an event worthy of community pride,” said Mary Beth Jarvis, president and CEO of Wichita Festivals, in a press release. “And what happened? People bought buttons and came to the festival over and over, creating great energy downtown for those nine days.”

Six thousand volunteers donated more than 32,000 hours of time for the festival this year, an increase from the year before.

The most attended festival days were Friday, May 29, Sunday, May 31 and Saturday, June 6 – each with about 65,000 attendees. More than 30,000 people attended the opening parade, more than 40,000 watched the fireworks finale and more than 20,000 attended three of the biggest concerts: Easton Corbin, the Village People and Flogging Molly.

Riverfest 2016 is scheduled for June 3-11.

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Riverfest attendance and revenue increased; button sales fell."