Kimmswick’s annual Strawberry Festival felt and looked more normal this year than in the recent past, attracting about 50,000 people to the small town on Saturday and Sunday, said Connie Schmitt, event co-director and Ward I alderwoman.
She said an estimated 35,000 attended last year’s event, and the city had to cancel the festival in 2019 because of flooding and in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kimmswick officials said previous festivals have attracted more than 60,000 people over a two-day period.
“This was like the first dry festival we have had for years,” Schmitt said. “We didn’t really know how to act.”
Schmitt said amazing weather contributed to the large crowd.
She also said she believes more people felt safer attending the large gathering this year.
“People who didn’t feel safe wore masks,” she said. “We had a lot of visitors wear masks, and we sold masks at the bandstand.”
She said it felt good to see people having a good time in the town again, and she and city clerk and treasurer Tammy Benack, the event’s other director, “just stood there and looked at the people coming in and said, ‘All right, this is what we want.’ Then we would see them leave with smiles on their faces and packages in their hands. That is what we like to see, their arms full of things they have bought.”
On Monday, June 6, Schmitt said town officials were still calculating how much money the festival brought in for the city.
Benack said the Strawberry Festival traditionally raises about $60,000 for the town.
Together, 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 added.
Schmitt said the Strawberry Festival brought some new people to town.
“A lot of people I talked to said it was their first time coming to the festival, and a lot of people I spoke to said they planned to come back when there wasn’t a festival to shop,” she said. “They were like this is the coolest little town.”
The festival appeared to be more crowded on June 4 than on June 5, Schmitt said.
She said the smaller June 5 crowd may have been because The Enjoy Illinois 300 was that day at the World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.
“We did have to compete with the big NASCAR race, and I know a lot of people went there,” she said.
Schmitt said a lot of the festival food vendors sold out on June 4, and she was impressed by the number of people who turned out to hear the Array Band, which performed for the first time at the festival on June 4.
“When Array Band performed, there were people out there dancing and sitting in their lawn chairs listening. It was fun seeing that,” Schmitt said.
She said Kraze Karz, a circular, pedal-powered ride for two people that also made its debut at the festival, also was a hit.
Schmitt said the city sold about 720 jars of its strawberry jam during the festival and has about 120 jars left to sell. She said the remaining jars may be purchased by calling City Hall at 636-464-7407.
Schmitt said the success of the Strawberry Festival has town officials looking forward to the Apple Butter Festival, scheduled for Oct. 29-30.