ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605310056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
WIND AND RAIN have plagued past Festivals in the Park, though spirits seldom have been dampened. This weekend, the skies may actually cooperate.
The weather hasn't always been nice to Roanoke's Festival in the Park.
Three years ago, a freak windstorm big-footed its way into Roanoke and blew apart the stage at Victory Stadium before a scheduled concert by country music star Marty Stuart.
Last year, the rain came and stayed, making it the soggiest festival in recent memory.
But the thing about storm clouds is, they always go away.
"When you plan an outdoor event, you have to go with the flow," says Wendi Schultz, festival executive director, who had to dig herself out of the rubble in 1993 after the winds blew the stage down.
Even the rain that soaked a good part of the festival over Memorial Day weekend was far from a disaster. Schultz said it held off last Friday night until after the Aaron Tippin country music show, which packed Victory Stadium with more than 10,000 concert-goers.
"Friday night was a wonderful crowd," Schultz said. And the vendors and attractions in Elmwood Park were "very, very busy" Saturday, she said.
The crowds were thinner Sunday and Monday when the rain was at its worst.
With a sunny and warm - but not too warm - forecast for this weekend, Schultz is confident this is going to be a good year financially for the festival. She expects the crowds to be better than normal this weekend, as people show up who had planned to go last weekend but were discouraged by the rain.
It's possible to buy "business interruption" insurance to cover financial losses caused by rain, but Schultz said it's really not cost-effective for the festival.
Schultz said some people have asked her if she's ever thought about moving the festival to a different time of the year. But it's been a late-May tradition for so long, she said - and besides, any time in the spring is going to have rain. And switching it to July or August would mean festival-goers would have to put up with the summer heat.
May is the second-wettest month of the year in the Roanoke Valley, averaging 3.98 inches. According to the National Weather Service, the wettest month is August, averaging 4.15 inches.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB