A WICHITA FESTIVALS INC. UPDATE by Shane Stuhlsatz WICHITA FESTIVALS UPDATE Hey Neighbor! It’s great to see you, and while I hate to cut to the chase so abruptly, the fact is we need your help. It should come as no surprise that 2020 has been an unprecedentedly challenging year for Wichita Festivals, Inc. You are our festival family, and I wanted to catch you up on what’s been happening in our world. One year ago, WFI staff was planning for Riverfest 2020,
excited about the concert lineup that was coming together beautifully and working with sponsors and partners to create a vision for the 49th festival. The year began with a joyful reveal of the 2020 poster and button artwork at the end of January, but by March, due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic, staff members were forced to work remotely. In early April we joined members of the festival and event industry all over the world when we announced that Riverfest 2020 would go virtual, presented mostly on our social media channels. The online event took place May 29 through June 6. It was well received and a wonderful way to stay in touch with festival fans. Not being able to host an in-person festival, however translated into a 90% reduction in revenue! Many people don’t know this but Wichita Festivals is a not-forprofit organization, not a government entity, so the revenue loss was a devastating blow.
The winning Riverfest 2020 poster by Meghan and Juanta Wolfe was just revealed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The charming design, featuring DJ Nobrac and his trusty disco ball, had barely seen daylight, so with a few small updates it will be the Riverfest 2021 poster as well.
After hoping for the best for our community and holding on to the hope of hosting an
in-person event with Autumn & Art at Bradley Fair, pandemic numbers and the regulations that go with them made it necessary for us to hold that outdoor festival virtually as well. On September 18, our staff and so many of our incredible volunteers hand-delivered Patron Party boxes to the homes of our supporters. Although the Patron Party in a box was a big hit, and we were delighted to welcome back favorite artists from throughout the years through our virtual booth platform, revenue opportunities from a virtual event remain slim. WFI staff began work on an event named Wonderfall, hoping to celebrate the 150th birthdays of Wichita and Sedgwick County by gathering downtown on the first weekend of November. Again, despite our high hopes and hard work, the raging pandemic foiled our plans. In late September we made the tough decision to reduce WFI staff by 30%. Remaining employees are working an 80% schedule. On the bright side, we successfully hosted the 44th River Run as a virtual event on Nov. 7, and toasted our town’s 150th with an outdoor art installation of Wichita luminaries, “Depth of Field: A (Continued on page 3)
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