ORGANIZERS PLEASED WITH RIVERFEST

Last year organizers of Riverfest marveled at how everything seemed to go according to plan. And then the rains came -- sending everyone packing the first night of the festival.

This year, as the festival kicked off Friday afternoon, their only concern was that there be a Riverfest. A lack of funding put the annual event in jeopardy.

"I am happy that we got everything going, and that we actually had a Riverfest this year," said Cape Girardeau Riverfest Association President Phyllis Lipscomb.

Lipscomb said the lack of funding put much of the preparation on hold.

"It has been a real challenge," Lipscomb said. "We had a lot of the major activities planned, but a lot of the last minute stuff we were not able to do in advance like we usually do. It has been a lot of late nights."

But out of the last-minute preparation has emerged an event that Lipscomb hopes patrons will enjoy. She said the board tried hard to implement the suggestions people provided last year.

She said based on the recommendations, the association banned beer bottles because of the danger of broken glass, and they also did not put any band tents in the same area as the arts and crafts so that people could hear what the vendors were saying.

Festival organizers also have tried to emphasize family activities. Children lined up Friday night to get their faces painted and to play games. One of the more popular activities was making handprints on a piece of construction paper using finger paints. The children then used Popsicle sticks to frame the picture and capped off the project with glitter heavily applied to the Popsicle frame.

St. Charles resident Beth Bearce, 11, was visiting her grandfather, Carl Patterson of Cape Girardeau, and stopped in at the children's booth to make her mother a picture of her handprint covered with blue paint.

"I like the color blue and so does she," Bearce said.

Yale Gerber, 6, went beyond the face painting and picture making and had his arm painted. His favorite picture on his arm was the snake.

"I like snakes," he said.

But not everything was geared for children. When the festival reopens at 11 a.m. today, patrons can listen to music or take their chances with some of the games.