CITY OF ROSES FESTIVAL WILL RETURN IN 1998

A disappointing turnout on the last day of the first-ever City of Roses Festival hasn't discouraged the promoter from planning to stage another next year.

The music festival held Oct. 16-18 in Cape Girardeau, lost $3,000 to $5,000, festival chairman Bob Camp said.

The first two nights were big successes. An awards banquet for musicians had to be moved from the River City Yacht Club to a larger Show Me Center room to accommodate the 175 people who attended.

"There probably were more than 200 people who wanted a ticket," said Camp.

The Friday night event, a Downtown Walk Around of clubs featuring about 30 bands, also was heavily attended. A $5 wristband entitled the wearer to enter any of the venues.

Festival organizers had designated 1,500 wristbands for Friday night and had to break into the supply intended for Saturday's outdoor concert. Lines of people waited to get in clubs offering the most popular bands.

But the story was different on Saturday's final day, which featured such nationally known acts as Memphis' Rufus Thomas and the blues-rock band Tora Tora along with a popular retro-disco band from St. Louis called Dr. Zhivegas. Only about 1,000 people paid the $10 admission into the concert grounds at the foot of Broadway. The festival committee had projected an attendance of 2,500.

Only 1,500 paying customers would have been needed Saturday for the festival to break even.

A number of explanations have been offered for the low attendance, including chilly temperatures and technical problems that put the schedule an hour behind from the start.

Camp said the next City of Roses festival may be scheduled earlier in the year to avoid cold temperatures.

Publicity about the event also may have been lacking, Camp said, and he took responsibility. "We didn't get the word out as adequately as it should have been. Some folks who came to see blues acts weren't clear on what the event was," he said.

"People need to be clear on what we're doing."

Some reports referred to the event as a jazz festival even though no jazz acts were in the lineup.

He's taking that misunderstanding as "divine intervention" and proposes devoting next year's festival to jazz. "We have the Jerry Ford Orchestra and Bob Rosenquist right here, and we can bring in a national jazz act," he said.

The enthusiasm and plenitude of corporate sponsors, which included Procter & Gamble and Lonestar Industries, convinced the promoter that the festival could be turned into a free event. "It seems to have so much support from the corporate community that we will be able to do it next year," he said.

Camp is scheduled to present a report on the festival at tonight's meeting of the Downtown Merchants Association.

Judith Anne Lang, president of the DMA, was pleased with the event overall. "I think it went off well for a first time," she said.

She also thinks cold weather hurt the festival on Saturday. "I think weather was a definite factor in the attendance," Lang said.

"I certainly would like to see it go forward and have it as an annual event," she said. "I think it definitely can work."

Spokesmen for the Cape Girardeau Police Department and for the Cape Girardeau Department of Public Works both said the festival was problem-free.

"A couple of officers were assigned," said Sgt. Carl Kinnison. "Both of them commented that there were no real problems at all."

All together, approximately 160 people volunteered to help at the festival. The cleanup performed by festival volunteers Sunday morning was extraordinary, Camp said. "They were done by 2:30 that afternoon."

Camp would like see half a dozen events staged downtown each year. The next one scheduled is the annual Cape Girardeau Musicians' Christmas Hoot, a jam session which has raised money for a charitable cause for the past five years.

A Cape Girardeau musician who has helped organize the Crossroads Festival in Memphis in recent years, Camp said promoters are hitting for a good average if two in 10 concerts are successful. From the viewpoint of a three-day festival, the City of Roses Festival worked, he said.

"I think we put a pretty good face on."