Extreme weather conditions affected attendance and played havoc on this year’s Kimmswick Strawberry Festival, held June 3-4, said Ward 1 Alderwoman Connie Schmitt, the Strawberry Festival’s co-director.
Hot temperatures throughout the two-day event likely kept some people away, and shortly after the event’s conclusion, the town was pelted by dime-sized hail, causing trouble for some of vendors and attendees, she said.
“It was 5 p.m. (when the festival finished), and everyone was like let’s just breathe,” Schmitt said. “Then we heard thunder, and the next thing we knew it was hailing, tents were blowing around and people were losing their merchandise.”
Schmitt said some people who were trying to leave Kimmswick after the event got stuck in traffic.
The Rock Community Fire Protection District got a call at 5:03 p.m. about a tree branch that had fallen on a Nissan pickup in the 6100 block of Mississippi Street, Rock Fire spokeswoman Alyson Barton said.
She said no one was in the pickup when firefighters arrived, and no injuries were reported.
“It was a hot mess,” Schmitt said. “The vendors couldn’t get out of the parking area because there was a tree against the road. Some of our residents took a chainsaw to cut the tree.”
Schmitt said it was a wild finish to a weekend that had lower attendance than normal.
She said an estimated 25,000 people attended over the two days, which was down from the previous year, when about 50,000 people turned out for the event.
Schmitt said most people attended the festival in the mornings since it was very hot in the afternoons.
She also said the Enjoy Illinois 300, a NASCAR Cup Series race held June 4 at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., may have led to lower attendance.
“It was still good,” Schmitt said. “It is just this year the attendance was down, and I think a lot of that was because of the heat.”
Schmitt said Kimmswick sold about 540 jars of Strawberry Jam during the festival. She said the town has about 300 jars for sale at City Hall, 6041 Third St. The jars cost $8 each.
Jen Bauer of St. Charles won the raffle for a solo stove – a smokeless fire pit with a Blues logo on it – that was valued at $450. H.W. Herrell Distributing Co. in Imperial donated the prize.
Schmitt also said the city expanded the festival to include the Elm Street parking lot to create about 30 additional vendor spaces, which worked well.
“We will adjust it a little bit to allow for a wider walkway,” she said. “But, it was filled and people liked where it was at.”
Schmitt said on Monday that Kimmswick officials were still calculating how much money was raised.
She said the Strawberry Festival typically brings in about $60,000 for the town.
Schmitt also said the Strawberry Festival and Apple Butter Festival, which typically is held the last weekend of October, make up about 80 percent of the town’s budget.
She said Strawberry Festival organizers plan to raise the prices to rent spaces at the event for next year.
Currently, the town charges merchandise vendors $135 and will raise it to $185 next year, and the charge for food vendors will increase from $235 to $285, she said.
Schmitt said Kimmswick won’t raise the vendor fees for this year’s Apple Butter Festival, but they will be higher next year.
She said merchandise vendors will pay $195 this year to take part in the Apple Butter Festival, but that cost will increase to $245 next year, and food vendors will pay $295 this year and $345 next year.
“The (organizing) committee didn’t really want to do that, but people don’t realize how much of an operating cost the festival takes,” she said.
Schmitt said even with the weather issues, the festival was enjoyable.
“Everyone enjoyed the music in the park, where it was shaded,” she said. “The restaurants and shops did well.”