Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995                   TAG: 9502060021
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW RADFORD FESTIVAL WOULDN'T REPLACE SEPTEMBERFEST, JULY 4

Developing the event "will not be an easy task and will probably take several years to establish," the ad hoc Commission on Festivals and Celebrations concludes in an unofficial, preliminary report.

While the commission's draft also suggests the city not overlook "the importance, focus and purpose" of existing festivals, it offers no recommendations about the future of those events.

The commission's draft report calls on City Council to set up a permanent, independent commission to administer a "big festival" that would play off the city's pioneer, railroad and Appalachian heritage and could include music, arts and crafts, tours, a parade, antique exhibits and other events.

City Councilman Bill Yerrick, chairman of the 15-member commission, said he hopes council will agree to appoint a permanent festival commission "to pick up where we left off."

Just when such a "big festival" ends up on the calendar could determine the fate of current city celebrations, but commission members suggest it be when Radford University students can be involved.

"There may not be a Riverfest, there may not be a Septemberfest, as they have been in the past," Yerrick said.

In fact, Riverfest's sponsor, the Radford Chamber of Commerce, has quietly dropped the event from its 1995 calendar. Some festival commission members have suggested eventually combining the best of Riverfest within an expanded Fourth of July celebration. "Particularly the raft race," said Rosemary Middleton, the chamber's executive director and a commission member. She said Riverfest died because "too many events too close together" drained the chamber's resources.

Septemberfest's prime sponsor, Main Street Radford, has said that organizing a similar celebration this year is "beyond the scope and capability" of the downtown redevelopment group. Main Street President Fred Heilich - who also sits on the festivals commission - said Septemberfest is "just too much for a small group to handle."

City Council appointed the festivals commission late last year to look into holding a major city celebration. The commission meets once more, on Feb. 15, before it sends final recommendations to council.

Yerrick said the commission acknowledged two major hurdles that could prove challenging to a permanent festival commission. "One thing we're kind of struggling with is the administrative process, how to pull it off," he said. The other is money, which has become more scarce this year.

Commission member Bud Jeffries, Main Street Radford's executive director and a prime mover behind Septemberfest, agrees with Yerrick on both counts. Above all, a festival needs leadership and money, he said. "How you put all that together is the next question."

Jeffries said private donations are drying up. "We have people who gave money last year [for Septemberfest] who said, 'Don't ask next year.'"

Main Street plans to continue Septemberfest, at least for this year, although Jeffries concedes it might not be on the scale of last year's two-day gala, which featured a free, open-air concert as well as a street festival.

Jeffries said two-thirds of the 1994 festival's approximately $30,000 budget went for entertainment, and "we essentially broke even." But planning and executing Septemberfest sapped the organization's energy and diverted its focus away from its main job of downtown redevelopment.

Jeffries says he'd like Septemberfest to complement the "big festival," whatever form it takes. Commission member David Ridpath - who's also Radford's development director - said if the big festival ends up in the fall, the Septemberfest street festival could be incorporated "as a subset."