Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Springdale ends Featherfest
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Jan 15, 2008 at 10:29 AM
The Iconoclast waxes poetic over the news of the end of a traditional Springdale fest:
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
Mariachi bands are playing, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere hombres are laughing, and little ninos shout;
But there is no joy in Springdale — the mighty Chicken was kicked out.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
Does this mean Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Rogers are dead too?
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See, here's the problems: 1. Although they roped off Emma Avenue for the festivities, they felt compelled to confine beer drinking strictly to the "beer garden". Thirsty patrons had to stand a half hour in crowded lines to get a brewsky, THEN, you hadda stay inside those ropes to consume it. Plain stupid, and it pissed a bunch o' folk off that they couldn't walk around the already-confined area of the festival itself with adult beverage in-hand. 1B. Too many cops present to enforce the drinking rules made it look like some kind of Nazi concentration camp. 2. Instead of getting some entertainment from this century, they only booked the old burn-out bands. I mean, dude, I'm from "the day", so I could get into seeing 3 Dog Night, Iron Butterfly, and (especially) The Guess Who (absent Burton Cummings, of course) - but it is certainly understandable that a bunch of people couldn't. 3. There's no parking space available. 4. Dickson Street, it ain't. Very few downtown Springdale businesses benefitted from having Emma blocked off for 2 days - people or no people. If it was an area with clubs, etc., this thing might have taken off in spite of those problems listed above. It's a damn shame it didn't work out. Just not enough forethought involved in the planning of the event.
'bout 25 years ago the AHTD hired a Baltimore guy to do a traffic plan for springdale. The local paper obliged us by publishing a reader survey of worst traffic problems that the SpringDalians could fill out and mail. I will never forget the day when Mr. Ismart called me to ask about a significant number of surveys that proclaimed the worst traffic problem to be "Feathers on Emma".
Oh no! What's next, the Strawberry Homefest in Bald Knob? Beanfest in Mountain View (home of the World Championship Outhouse Races)? Star Daze in Star City? The Tontitown Grape Festival? Actually, these festivals work because they are as much a part of the community as the communities are part of the festival. And each one has its own distinct flavor and theme. Seriously -- could you have the Cave City Watermelon Festival without truckloads of ice cold melon, cut and served up for free by the growers themselves? Or a Toad Suck Daze without the help of kids who bring in the toads in their toad condo boxes? Would you salivate as much if Magnolia dropped the beef out of its steakfest? Or would you shed your footgear and dance in a grape-slathered tub for anything other than the Altus City Fest? None of those festivals would survive without the support of the full community. If the Springdale community couldn't come together to save their festival, to staff it with volunteers and promote it and celebrate it as something unique to their area, it's no wonder the darn thing died.
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