Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 3, 1995 TAG: 9506060037
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hey, Richmond would probably welcome that - its own major urban festival, June Jubilee, suffering troubles that nearly forced its cancellation this year. The Jubilee is still on, for June 10-11, in case folks hereabouts aren't festivaled-out by next weekend and want to go.
But expect a pale imitation of Roanoke's 11-day extravaganza - an event so chock-full of things to see and do that it attracts nearly three times more people than Roanoke has residents.
Indeed, despite rainy weather, sponsors hope this year's attendance will reach the usual expectations - about 375,000 - by the time Festival '95 ends Sunday.
So what if it's rained for much of the 11-day period. Festival week always seems to bring rain. It's as much a part of the tradition as the Sidewalk Art Show that was the event's humble beginning 26 years ago. And people keep pouring into the city, toting umbrellas, because it's a Big Gig in Southwest Virginia.
Nowhere else can you find these arts and eats; musicians, magicians, comedians; crafts and critters; sports and spoofs; fireworks, frizbees, fandangos and fiddles - and dozens of activities, as old as story-telling and new as roller-blading.
By now, of course, Festival in the Park has become a venerable institution. It's one of the longest-running and most successful of its genre, and has been a model that larger cities and small towns have emulated. And it's been more problem-free than most urban outings. While some others have been shut down for one reason or another, Roanoke's keeps on keeping on - overcoming whatever obstacles seem to get in the way.
What might, for instance, have put a serious damper on this year's event - the city's threat to impose its vendors' tax on ware-sellers - was poofed away. The city is studying the issue; we expect it will be settled by next year.
In no small measure, the festival's longevity and its continuing growth and popularity are a tribute to the organizers who work long and hard behind the scenes to ensure its success. An event of this size and scope doesn't just happen in the city as naturally as rain. Months of planning and coordination go into it.
To be sure, strains have appeared around the edges. Organizers of an event this complicated and big and successful can get carried away with themselves sometimes. The festival itself seems at least at risk of losing touch with its smaller, uncommercial and art-centered origins.
Even so, for all the hundreds of visitors that it draws, perhaps best of all is that the festival remains to this day an event that attracts Roanokers.
Despite its size, it is still a community affair that brings together residents young and old and from all walks of life. If few cities have a festival to compare, well, not all cities can boast a character and spirit that invites such festive celebration.
by CNB