PRESS
Celebration City Mon, Jul 28 2008
Festivals help shape Columbia’s personality as a growing destination for arts and culture.
By SARA AGNEW of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, June 22, 2008
Richard King was downtown getting a haircut when he realized he might be involved with something bigger than he first imagined.
For months, King had been working with organizers on the Roots ’N Blues ’N BBQ celebration. The two-day fest was created last year by Boone County National Bank to mark its 150th anniversary. King has always loved the blues. But The Blue Note’s owner wasn’t sure how a festival celebrating the genre would go over in Columbia.
He found his answer while sitting in the barber’s chair.
“Everyone in the barbershop was talking about the upcoming festival,” he said. “For the first time, I felt like, ‘Wow, this could be big.’ ”
The blues festival attracted an estimated 70,000 people downtown — 50,000 more than organizers anticipated — and since then has taken its place among a variety of celebrations that call Columbia home. This spring, the Columbia City Council approved a one-time $100,000 donation for the Roots ’N Blues ’N BBQ festival from the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau’s unreserved fund.
Festivals — whether small, one-night affairs or weekend-long celebrations — are helping shape the personality of Columbia, which is fast becoming an arts and culture destination in Mid-Missouri. Festivals also generate invaluable publicity that no amount of advertising could replace.
Festivals “make a statement about what we value and what kind of experience people can expect if they were to move here,” said Lorah Steiner, executive director of the convention and visitors bureau. “That’s important in terms of how people decide where to accept a job, relocate a business, raise their family or attend school. When someone is just starting a career, they follow the money. When they have more experience, they are more likely to follow their hearts.”
“This is especially true in the much-sought-after, high-tech industries,” she continued. “People are more likely to accept a position in a city that speaks to their personal interest and lifestyle.”
Among the community’s oldest festivals are Art in the Park, a 50-year-old festival presented by the Columbia Art League; and the Columbia Festival of the Arts, which is sponsored by Columbia’s Office of Cultural Affairs as well as individual and corporate sponsors.
Another local staple is the Boone County Heritage Festival, a celebration that seeks to reflect the spirit of Mid-Missouri in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
On a much smaller scale are the ever-popular Twilight Festivals, which occur each Thursday evening in June and September in downtown Columbia. The streets come alive with music, carriage rides and a variety of local artists exhibiting their wares and giving demonstrations.
A similar atmosphere exists the last Friday of each quarter during Artrageous Fridays, a gallery crawl that showcases the city’s arts community.
One unique celebration that has put Columbia on the map is the True/False Film Festival, which started five years ago during the month of February. The four-day documentary film festival has drawn attendance from across the United States and from Europe, exposing the community to folks who might not otherwise come to Mid-Missouri.
“The True/False Film Festival is an example of an event that has really raised the profile of Columbia and the artistic community,” Steiner said. “People from New York and L.A. who attended the festival consistently comment how cool Columbia is and how much the atmosphere and offerings differed from what they had envisioned.”
Marie Nau Hunter, manager of Columbia’s Office of Cultural Affairs, said festivals are an effective way to expose new people to the arts.
“They are a great way to ease people into the idea of getting involved in the arts because at a festival, it is more likely people will experience an art form that they would not purchase a ticket to attend on their own,” Hunter said. “The arts as a destination is a good thing. Certainly festivals can go a long way in terms of increasing cultural tourism that is based in the arts.”
Hunter added that it is important for a community to have venues conducive to holding festivals, such as the Boone County Courthouse Square. Public art also can set the mood and create an atmosphere of creativity.
“It’s not just about having an event,” Hunter said. “It’s about having an event in an environment conducive to whatever that event is.”
King, who worked on the music committee for the first Roots ’N Blues ’N BBQ festival, said cooperation from the city — including the city’s office of cultural affairs and the police, fire and public works departments — was key to the success of the blues festival.
“Some of the cooperation was unprecedented, such as shutting down Broadway” to make room for more stages, King said. “I think the Roots ’N Blues festival was a gigantic step in the direction of making Columbia a festival town. We were able to show that we can do this. We can behave and make the city shine.”
Carrie Gartner, executive director of the Special Business District, believes the city’s hotel tax has gone a long way toward helping to kick-start many of the local festivals.
The convention and visitors bureau, a city government department, is financed by a 4 percent occupancy tax on motel- and hotel-room fees. The CVB puts some of the money into the Tourism Development Fund, which works as a piggy bank for local festivals and events.
Still, funding can be challenging as the public grows to expect more and more from such events.
Diana Moxon, executive director of the Columbia Art League, said people want more than just a visual art fair when they attend Art in the Park: They want food, music and entertainment, which raises the bar for the art league and sometimes creates competition for a limited amount of available arts funding.
“Then, not only are we competing for limited arts fund locally, but more and more other communities are having festivals, and we begin competing with them for entertainment and vendors,” Moxon said.
Iowa City, Iowa, is similar to Columbia in size and demographics.
The home of the University of Iowa addressed its funding issues by creating Summer of the Arts as an umbrella organization for five local festivals and events.
“We were formed three years ago to help support our local festivals, which were struggling in managing volunteers, raising money and managing growth,” said Mary Frieden, executive director of Summer of the Arts. “By combining resources and doing one huge fundraising campaign, we have garnered very strong support from the city of Iowa City.”
Summer of the Arts also has the support of the local convention and visitors bureau as well as local businesses.
“They like being able to give to one organization knowing it is supporting five separate events,” Frieden said. “We have seen sponsors increase their donations over this past year.”
Steiner said every local festival generates some local economic impact, whether it is money spent in restaurants, retail stores or on entertainment. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“I believe the real value of Columbia’s festivals is the positive image they create for our city,” she said.