OUTLOOK FOR RIVERFEST SEEMS GRIM

Two years after the last Riverfest was held, the organization that ran the festival for 21 years no longer exists.

Cape Girardeau Riverfest Association has been dissolved and has given its assets to the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce while stipulating that money be set aside for reinstating the event.

The Riverfest board voted June 12 to dissolve the association which presented the summer festival offering music, food, crafts, carnival rides and fireworks in downtown Cape Girardeau. In a press release, the board said its liquid and physical assets will be transferred to the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, which sponsored Riverfest originally.

Phyllis Lipscomb, president of the Riverfest board, refused to say what those assets consist of.

She would not discuss the reasons the board decided to dissolve the association. The press release cited "the considerable amount of difficulties that were present in 1999 in recruiting volunteers and new board members."

But Lipscomb said the deaths of both of her parents within the past two years made it impossible for her personally to be involved in activities and organizations.

"I feel like I owe the community an explanation," she said. "I made promises to keep it going ... I hope the community can understand why I did not follow through with my promises."

Not necesarily dead

She doesn't think Riverfest is necessarily dead, though she said she would not be involved. "Given the right support and the right leadership, it can be revived."

John Mehner, president of the chamber, said he has not received any assets yet and does not know what they are.

The Riverfest board has stipulated that the assets "be used for the promotion of downtown Cape Girardeau via an entertainment and/or educational venue."

The chamber must set aside $5,000 of the assets for at least five years "for the sole purpose of reinstating Riverfest ..."

The Riverfest association also donated $2,000 for the fireworks display presented on the riverfront Wednesday.

The once popular festival saw attendance and revenues decline in recent years, in part due to heavy rains. The board also in the last years changed the event's format, placing less emphasis on arts and crafts and big-name entertainment.

Organizers put the cost of producing each Riverfest at $75,000-$80,000. The 1999 event was scaled back because of lack of money and difficulty recruiting volunteers, and the 2000 Riverfest was canceled. Leaders of the organization said they needed a year to take stock and plan for 2001.

They said the event was not dead.

Mehner said the chamber board has agreed to the Riverfest association's terms and expects to hear from organizations with activities that meet the Riverfest requirements.

"Whatever we do with it from a promotional standpoint, I would hope it would be a repeated event," he said.

Riverfest began as a chamber committee that spun off on its own when the festival became successful.

"At its peak in popularity it was a major event for the city," Mehner said. "In the latter years, for whatever reason, attendance and interest dipped, both from a volunteer and attendance standpoint.

"I have no idea why."

Don Greenwood, president of the Downtown Merchants Association, said some merchants are not sorry about Riverfest's demise. "Some of the merchants closed for Riverfest," he said.

But generally Riverfest is missed, he said, or at least the Riverfest of yore is. "What we need to do is try to fill that void. I'm looking for that to happen with the Fourth of July or the City of Roses Festival or maybe a combination of the two," Greenwood said.