Monticello
40ANNUAL TH 19762016
JULY 14, 15, 16 & 17, 2016
MONTICELLO ON THE MISSISSIPPI
RIVERFEST CELEBRATES FOUR DECADES OF COMMUNITY FUN There are several standout Monticello festivals and celebrations throughout the year, but by far the biggest is Riverfest. The annual four-day festival, a celebration of food, drinks, music, the city, its people and much more, is essentially the big Monticello get-together. Monticello’s celebration started as a one-time party in 1976. That inaugural July celebration, with major help from the year-old Monticello Lions Club and the Monticello Chamber of Commerce, wasn’t all that different from the current version. People sat streetside for a parade, chowed down on community-prepared meals and were simply entertained. All of those pieces of today’s Riverfest were born that year. The first celebration was a four-day event, starting July 1 and ending on the Fourth of July. Even though Monticello was much smaller in 1976 than it is today, the community was booming with growth. And the celebration helped bind it together. In between the five and 10-year mark of the big Fourth of July celebration, organizers decided on a change. In 1981 an annual staple was created for the Monticello event. That first year, Kim (Johnson) Lommel was crowned Miss Monticello.
Serving Monticello Since 1857
In 1983 came another major addition to the summer celebration. That’s when the
Monticello Rotary Club, the Lions and Chamber joined forces to honor a Monticelloan as Citizen of the Year. The first honoree was Lynn Smith, former publisher of the Monticello Times, whose accomplishments included starting a local Don’t Smoke Day. Every year since, a community member has been honored as a top citizen, and he or she has presided over the celebration parade as grand marshal. The change from a Fourth of July celebration occurred because organizers desired to get more bands and other entries for the parade. That task was difficult to fulfill because of competition among other Fourth of July celebrations. The idea of having the summer celebration on the weekend following the Fourth of July stuck. And in 1988, the celebration officially was dubbed “Riverfest.” Ten years later, a community-wide committee was formed to organize and oversee operations of the four-day event, and the popular duck drop and race on the Mississippi River was added as a Sunday attraction. Sixteen years later, the 40th rendition of Monticello’s Riverfest figures to be the best one yet. Turn the pages of this commemorative special section to learn more about Riverfest’s past as well See Special Pullo as its present. The staff of the ut Section Centersp Monticello Times hopes you read enjoy the journey. for Schedule – Monticello Times Managing Editor Tim Hennagir
of Events, Parade Route an d Park & Ride
A Supplement to the Monticello Times & Great River Life