2008 Riverfest records loss of nearly $17,000

Friday, November 7, 2008 10:15 PM CST

The 2008 Watertown Riverfest celebration showed a financial loss of $16,677 despite four days of good weather, Tom Schultz, festival chairman, told volunteers at their annual dinner Friday evening at Turner Hall.

Schultz said committee members believe the loss was at least in part the result of the unsettled economic conditions in the country that were evident even before the steep declines of recent weeks.

Schultz said, "We did see some early signs of a weakening economy. While we had big crowds all four days of the festival, we could have used a few more people. In addition, we believe people were a little more conservative with their spending this year."

The loss will be covered through profits made by the festival in past years.

The festival showed total revenues of $440,314.75 which was about $9,000 below budget. On the expense side, he said $449,300 was the budget number but actual spending was $456,992.

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Most of the loss in revenues was in food and beverage sales which were budgeted at $362,000 but ended up being $351,000.

Proceeds from the raffle ended up at $36,438 which was $1,400 above the $35,000 budget amount but about $3,500 below the record amount of several years ago.

The biggest expense was for the food vendors who received $137,637. That was about $2,600 over the budgeted amount. Schultz noted that means there was a small shift from beverage sales to food sales. That in turn has an effect on the bottom line because the festival's profit margin for beverages is much higher than the food sales where vendors share 15 percent of their revenues with the festival.

The overall cost of entertainment and entertainment production which includes sound, light, special band gear and other similar costs, was about $113,000 which was about $2,000 higher than the budgeted figure of $111,000.

Some of the other expenses included overtime for city workers, $21,800; advertising and public relations, $21,400; electrical, $10,315; fireworks, $16,000; management fee, $25,000; office expenses, $1,181; park maintenance, $4,200; portable bathrooms, $3,060; security, $6,347; tents and signage, $5,841; ticket printing, $3,686; trailer rentals, $5,204; miscellaneous, $3,211; carp classic, $1,400; raffle prizes and printing expenses, $15,437; and memorabilia and souvenir expenses of $6,900.

Schultz said the revenues included $351,001 in food and beverage ticket sales, down about $11,000 from the budget, $2,175 in restaurant fees, $4,100 in arts and crafts fair fees, $21,525 as the festival's share of the carnival/midway, $8,548 in memorabilia sales, and $5,857 in car show revenues.

The chairman announced two acts that have been signed for 2009. The Doo Wop Daddies, a Midwest act that will do all the famous songs from the Woo Wop era of the 1950s and 1960s is scheduled to perform Sunday, Aug. 9, at noon.

The other contract agreed upon is Think Floyd USA/The American Pink Floyd show. Schultz said this group will do a two hour presentation of Pink Floyd music with a full special effects light show titled "Feel the Pulse." That group will be the headliner on Friday, Aug. 7.

More entertainment will be announced as contracts are signed.

The 2009 event will be held Aug. 6-9 and it will mark the 23rd consecutive year the festival has been presented.