A board member and organizer for the Bluegrass in the Park Folklife Festival said last weekend’s attendance probably broke records for the 38-year festival.
Monica Hargis said she estimates that anywhere from 3,500-4,000 people attended.
“We feel like it was the biggest Friday and Saturday night crowds we’ve ever had,” she said.
Kelsey Hargis, also a part of the BGIP team, said she believes the crowd size was even higher. She and Henderson Tourist Commission Executive Director Abby Dixon did their own bit of estimating—to the tune of about 5,000 attendees.
And it wasn’t just the music the crowds were coming for. Monica Hargis also said that Saturday morning’s Breakfast in the Park was planned for 150 people, but 195 were served and, “We could have sold more” if they hadn’t run out of food.
That’s not all—Hargis said that virtually every piece of the festival felt an uptick in sales or attendance this year, including T-shirt sales, past BGIP T-shirt sales and other memorabilia sales. They even had to go find some guitar picks from past festivals to give away with a bucket shake donation, she said.
Much of the credit, she said, goes to a bigger social media presence that has been handled by Katie Hargis and the work of Dixon and the tourist commission in promoting the festival through its channels, Monica Hargis said.
Finally, Monica Hargis said the all-around positive festival was given more cred from the musicians who played this past weekend. They’re already asking to return next year, saying the town is so beautiful and the people so kind. She reports that the musicians are saying: “This is the way a festival should go.” And other musicians who were not here are also asking to be a part of it next year, she said.
Monica Hargis said the BGIP committee will meet next week, and members will begin discussions about next year’s festival.
One possibility for the future is to increase the festival’s length, she said, but the committee would need more younger volunteers to make that happen.
Monica Hargis said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for all our sponsors and volunteers. We couldn’t do it without them.”