Wichita Riverfest will return in 2021 but will be split into two parts
The Wichita Riverfest will be back this year after being canceled in 2020 for the first time in its 49-year history because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it won’t look like the River Festivals of the past, festival organizers announced on Friday. Instead, it will run over seven days split between two different seasons — summer and fall.
The first part of the festival, scheduled for June 4 through 6, won’t be a gated event. It will include many of the festival’s popular outdoor components that can be conducted in a socially distanced manner, including the River Run and a softball tournament.
The second half will look more like the festival fans are used to and will happen from Sept. 30 through Oct. 3. It will include four nights of concerts, a fireworks show, the food court and more. That part of the festival will be gated and will require a button for entry. It will be staged on and near Century II’s Kennedy Plaza downtown as usual.
“After a great deal of study and communicating with event experts all over the world and also local health officials, we think this is the best approach to keep people safe and also give them what they want, which is a big outdoor party,” said Teri Mott, the festival’s marketing and communication director. “Everyone wants it, and we want it, too. But we also have to have a way to keep people safe.”
Festival organizers announced in March of 2020 that they were canceling the nine-day Wichita Riverfest, an annual event that draws thousands of people to downtown Wichita, because of mounting COVID-19 concerns. Initially, organizers said they would replace the festival, which had been scheduled for May 29-June 6, with a smaller downtown party in the fall, but the pandemic crushed those plans, too.
Now, with the pandemic a year old, festival officials think they can put on a safe event and are hoping that COVID-19 conditions will have improved more by fall, when even more Wichitans will be vaccinated. As a result of last year’s cancellation and the pandemic’s effect on the festival’s other big event — the Autumn & Art Festival, which was conducted virtually in September — Wichita Festivals Inc. faced a 90 percent loss of revenue in 2020 and had to cut a third of its staff, said Ann Keefer, a longtime festival staffer who is now serving as the festival’s interim president and CEO.
Newly appointed President and CEO Ty Tabing, who took over the head job in November 2019 after Mary Beth Jarvis resigned, was among those cut in September. Keefer said she did not know when the Riverfest board would name a permanent replacement.
Buttons for the fall festival will go on sale in late August, Mott said, and they’ll be the same price as last year — $10 for adults and $5 for children. The buttons will use last year’s art of a robot DJ created by Meghan and Juanta Wolfe, though the artists have updated the artwork to go along with the 2021 festival’s theme: “The River Rocks Again.”
Anyone who bought a 2020 button can use it for the festival in 2021.
Mott wouldn’t say whether last year’s Admiral Windwagon Smith, Clay Bastian, who was named before the festival was canceled, would serve again. But she said the festival would make an admiral announcement on April 1.
In addition to the River Run, the June Riverfest dates will also include a softball tournament and a plein air (outdoor) painting festival. Organizers also have added a Riverfest triathlon, a paddle board 5K and a couple of virtual parades. One, a pet parade, will feature photos of festival fans’ four-legged friends. The other will be a porch parade, in which fans will decorate their porches and send the festival their address to be included on a list of porches people can drive by and check out.
The fall event will have only one fireworks show but four big-name concerts, Mott said. It will also include kids events like Touch-A-Truck as well as the Sundown Parade.
The festival will release more details on its plans in the coming weeks and months, Mott said. Registration has already started for the River Run at RiverRunWichita.com.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 12:01 PM.
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