Just under 14,000 people enjoyed acoustic music against a back drop of cool, crisp September weather at the 36th annual Walnut Valley Festival, organizers said Thursday.
Official attendance was 13,900 for the five-day festival which started Sept. 12 and continued through Sept. 16 at the Winfield Fairgrounds, according to spokesperson Rex Flottman. That number was less than attendance at last year’s show but above the total for 2005.
“This year was down from last year but last year was the 35th festival,” he said. “The five year shows are always a little bigger.”
Overall, attendance numbers have been off from those posted earlier in the decade. In 2002, just over 17,000 attended the festival and that total remains the record. For the next two years, attendance hovered around 16,000 before dipping below 14,000 in 2005.
But Flottman said the drop in attendance puts the festival in more of a comfortable zone as far as operations and logistics go. When festival attendance tops 16,000, he said, it presses the limits of the facility.
“It’s nice to have the big year and that’s fun,” he said. “But (this year’s) level of attendance was comfortable for us because the big years get so labor intensive. With an attendance of 13,000 to 16,000 you don’t have as many problems with people finding plenty of camping space, or problems with clean up or trash collection.”
There were plenty of positive remarks made to festival organizers about the condition of the fairgrounds. Flooding early in the summer had caused fans to worry whether signs of damage would be evident. That was not the case.
“I think we owe the city a lot of credit for that,” Flottman said.
This year was a “good year” for the festival but there is little time for reflection, Flottman said. Later this month and through December, festival organizers will start taking a look at the performers they’ll want for the 2008 show which runs from Sept. 17 to Sept. 21.
