@BlogKCAnyone who tried squeezing into the Irish Fest on Saturday night knows the thing has grown way too popular for it’s Crown Center venue. Back to Rockville reports that it was so crowded the fire marshal closed the gates for a while.
The festival fled to Crown Center after torrential rains wiped it out a few years ago. The rationale was that if it rains the festival can just move inside the Crown Center shopping mall. But with a reported 20,000 people attending Saturday night, moving it indoors would have been impossible. Here’s hoping next year they take another chance on the riverfront or some place like Penn Valley Park, which has served big festivals very well over the years.
I was there on Sunday. It was very full despite the heat and expanding the grounds further to the south. It is certainly a good problem – I hope the community and city are supportive, unlike their actions with the St. Patrick’s Day parade.
Why not close off Grand further north (or south) next year? They already closed the Pershing/Grand intersection, so the rest of that block was pretty useless. Just please do NOT put it in Penn Valley Park.
I’d say try the riverfront again, which doesn’t seem to get enough traffic. BTW, are there plans to finish of the rest of that area?
How about Union Station — like Memorial Day — for the main stage?
Then you’ve got all of Penn Valley on the north…. and walking distance to Crown Center for other bands and shops.
Just a thought.
They kinda did the above least year, had it spread out between Union Station and Crown Center. Most people hated it, made the festival feel disjointed and forced families to have to split apart.
I think it should go back to the Riverfront. It cost the city a ton of money to make that park, and now it sits empty and underutilized. Plus, I think it’s silly to plan an event around the slight chance that it is going to rain for an entire weekend…
Another option would be to expand across Pershing and use Washington Square Park. That would almost double the space available.
The riverfront doesn’t have electricity… gotta use generators. Also, the parking is even worse, but that’s not a deal-breaker. Maybe they just need more beer tents? Using Washington Square Park is a good idea, but need to make sure people at the Westin can get out (turn the southern lanes into a two-way street temporarily?).
I agree with DaveKCMO, expanding and moving into Washington Park is my favorite idea. If they close off Grand further north and west into the park would make a great space.
On a side note the Boulevard Stage which was at the corner of Persing and Grand had a great back-drop looking north down Grand.