August 24th, 2008 By Justin Williams
How to Save the Freedom Festival
After last week’s announcement that the Freedom Festival advisory board was dissolving, the future of the summer festival is up in the air. The city has found a new organizer in GAGE, but there are lingering questions on whether they will be putting on the same festival we’ve come to known and love.
With lower than expected attendance, this year’s festival is left with a $90,000 debt. It’s not GAGE’s problem, but they should use that as a signal that the festival is in need of a reboot.
Rather than focusing the festival around an air show and a hydroplane race, focus on what makes Evansville the community it is.
- Taste of Evansville: The Fall Festival has a foothold on the church and fraternity-run food booths, which has left the Freedom Festival to mainly rely on carnival foods. How unoriginal. Rather than inviting these corndog pushers back for another year, turn the riverfront into a sampler platter of all the restaurants that call Evansville home. Not only will it give the festival a local feel, but it will introduce these local businesses to a whole new audience.
- More Local Music: Every year, the Freedom Festival tries to pull in a semi-major name act to headline their music lineup. Headliners are expensive and unnecessary in a musically rich town like Evansville. I’m sure there are dozens of great, local bands that would jump at the opportunity to play in front of thousands of people on a big stage.
- Art: In addition to music, use the 2009 Freedom Festival as a way to showcase local artists. There is a rich art community downtown and around the area. Allow local artists to purchase tents at an affordable price to showcase, and possibly sell, their work. You want to make the festival a showcase of Evansville’s rich culture and community.
- No more buttons: One of the most annoying aspects of the Freedom Festival is the constant pimping of buttons for entry to the festival. Rather than having to run around to a gas station or local business to find the tacky button, distribute food tickets. Each vendor can then charge x number of tickets for their meals rather than cash. The ticket sales can go through GAGE who can then distribute the revenue to each individual vendor based on their ticket count.
- Eliminate the trash: There’s a reason I do Freedom Festival Bingo: it’s too easy. We’ve all seen the shirtless creatures walking the riverfront and it’s unsightly and a poor reflection on our town. By shifting the focus of the festival to be more cultural you are probably going to eliminate some of these types, but the rest need a dress code. Shirts are a must. You don’t walk into a restaurant without a shirt on or some ratty tank top.
- A new name: Rather than just passing the burden of the festivals of the past to a new group, hopefully GAGE and the city of Evansville can use this as an opportunity to implement some much needed upgrades to our summer street festival. To drive home the point that this is a whole new Freedom Festival, give it a new name.
We’re still early in GAGE’s tenure as festival organizer, but I hope someone around there thinks along the same lines as me. Either that, or they forward this post their way. The Freedom Festival can be a great way to showcase our city and step outside the shell of your typical summer carnival.
photo courtesy of Lori Spindler
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Jenna
August 24, 2008 @ 01:34PM
I personally think this is a great idea. Other cities have “Taste of xyz” that are extremely popular—some are for a day, some are for a weekend. Bloomington has one, LaFayette has one, Chicaaaaago has one….we don’t have one. We really should have one, it would be a great way for local restaurants/caterers to come out and get known and let us try their fantastic food. I’m sure there are tons of local places we don’t know about simply because they are on one side of town or another, are super tiny, new, “hole in the walls,” etc. I mean, don’t we have a cajun place? I could never tell you what it is or where it is, but I would love to try it! Things like that could come out at the Taste of Evansville.
Easily we could find many local (Five Finger Death Punch, Rebel Fuel Tank, Stompbox 40, etc) or semi-local-traveling bands (like Dave & Rae, 17th Floor, etc—look at bloomington bands that are at Jake’s & Bluebird!!!!!)—playing through out different times of the day, perhaps an afternoon and evening show, or certain days just an evening show.
Furthermore, the GAGE people could team up with “Funk in the City” to try to get a lot of local, regional artists to come set up shop—Funk in the City traditionally has lots of jewelry, clothing, paintings, drawings, photography, and more. That would be GREAT to have right along side “Taste of Evansville” with some music.
I think having a Taste of Evansville, good local musicians, and a “Funk in the City” type thing all in one would be fantastic……I won’t lie, I love the air shows, so I wouldn’t be too offended if the Blue Angels showed up as well ;)
cody
August 24, 2008 @ 05:41PM
the radio stations bring in the musical acts. if they took that away i would never step foot back down there. no one in this town gives two shits about art. i dont see how that would make anymore money then music and beer.
you can wish in one hand and crap in the other and see witch one will fill up first. i dont think any of the above said ideas are good for this event.
if you want to increase revenue stop allowing coolers into the festival and make everyone have a wristband to purchase beer with a ticket style vending.
face it america and evansville are interested in 2 things beer and fatty fried foods.
if you want to save money eliminate the boats because thats where the money was lost.
Jenna
August 24, 2008 @ 06:35PM
ummm, cody, totally not, maybe for college age people the only draw is beer, but there are tons of people interested in things other than that, such as good music and art. We aren’t talking necessarily fancy framed mona lisa’s, but a lot of people love to buy local jewelry or local ceramics and stuff like that. That’s why we actually have events for that and that are quite popular.
As for addressing your alcohol need. At Taste of Bloomington, there was a wine tent—show your ID and get a stamp for further ease, and get several samples of free wine, after the samples it was a ticket or two for a full glass. I think that’s a good idea—do we have local wineries and breweries? In Bloomington, the wine was all supplied by Oliver Winery, which was local. I know Turonies brew something don’t they? Upland in Bloomington does, I’m sure there are other places. That is something to be included at something like “Taste of Evansville”
beer and fatty fried foods = Fall Fest
Let’s have something nicer for us, and trashy for the rest? How about that!
Again, I still totally support the air show, I love it.
And totally support bringing in Dave & Rae as a musical act one night
cody
August 24, 2008 @ 07:18PM
well there is your calling apply to be one of the 2 full time people to arrange the event
Sarah
August 24, 2008 @ 10:01PM
While I think that those are all great ideas, I really think only a couple could be implemented and still keep the same feeling of the festival. Now, yes, the feel of the festival could be why its failing, but maybe if the week was somewhat split up it could work. During the weekdays maybe change it over to these new ideas, but then on the weekend phase in a few of the more traditional things.
I really do agree with attempting to create some kind of dress code though. Even though we are in the midwest, Evansville is a somewhat large city, and as such should maybe have some kind of standards. I mean, if someone from out of town that’s new to the tri-state area comes and is assaulted with toothless hillbillies in wife beaters and said wives (also toothless) in things they really shouldn’t be wearing, they probably won’t come back. I think the patrolmen trying to keep things a bit cleaner and nicer would help a lot too. They’re already there, just make sure that they’re doing something.
As for the bands, I think that bringing in someone from out of town is a good idea, but maybe have a local band every weeknight and then have one big act or whatever on Saturday night.
I really think that infusing some of Evansville into it rather than having “generic riverfront festival” is a good idea though. I think that at the same time though you couldn’t radically change it and still expect it to succeed as much, even in the long run. When you look at things that already do involve local art or food, they really don’t draw huge crowds, just the same people again and again (mostly those under 30 who live downtown).
gmwong
August 25, 2008 @ 10:35AM
“ummm, cody, totally not, maybe for college age people the only draw is beer,” - Jenna
I’m insulted! I am college aged and enjoy good music, art, and beer at the same time….. But I understand what you are saying.
I’m an alumnae of a fraternity at USI, and we were not able to set up any type of booth at Freedom for xyz reasons (they changed, depending on the person). The change of hand will probably correct this issue.
A Taste of Evansville would be amazing. I’ve attended the “Evening by the River” twice, although it was pretty expensive, and mostly old people, the food and fare were spot on. I also loved most of the entertainment. Change some of the acts, make it cheaper and it would be a great event for the city.
Evansville doesn’t have much of an identity other than fall festival. We don’t have any major landmarks or sight seeing attractions (unless your a history buff). And, to top it off we have cookie cutter events like Freedom. Hopefully freedom could be altered to change our image, and make people more proud to live here.
Lastly, I could never find out how to get involved. I offered to help out as a volunteer and no one ever said anything back to me. Maybe you have to be on the “inside”, who knows!
Anyways, we should have an “it’s evansville” festival.
Justin Williams
August 25, 2008 @ 01:30PM
gmwong: Step 1 to the “It’s Evansville” festival is selling advertising on It’s Evansville. That hasn’t gone too well. :)
MajorBeef
August 26, 2008 @ 10:32AM
I think Justin and Cody both have good points. It would be nice to “class up” the Freedom Festival and add art and culture to the slate. With the art district/colony close to the riverfront I think it is a no brainer. But, you got to remember a great majority of Evansville and this entire region is blue collar and love the carnival atmosphere.
For example… let’s say we have Turoni’s sponsor a beer garden, bier stube style. Will it be filled with intellectual college grads sipping thoughtfully on their pint of Thunderbolt Red? No. The culture and enjoyment for such an endeavor would be lost the minute Bobby Joe shows up and gets mad because they don’t have Budweiser on tap.
I did not go to the fest this year… for a couple of reasons. First, my wife and I celebrated the birth of our first child just weeks before the event, and we were in full on reclusive hermit mode. But, even if we had an inclination to go, we would have had a hard time forking out $16 per button. That would be $32 for the both of us just to walk through the gate! That is insane.
My remedy - sell a one day pass for $4 apiece. It would draw more people down on the busy days, at the lower cost. I myself in past years have thought… man, I’d really maybe like to go down one day/night this year… but not for the full button price. I know there are folks out there who agree with me on this.
As far as music goes, I think you must have some low level famous musical acts for people to really come out (debating whether that is good or bad). I personally am sick of the cover bands in Evansville. Unfortunately, these are the bands that folks (like Bobby Joe from above) love to see. I’d love to see local original acts play, but the party crowd likes their top 40 cover bands. SO that leaves us with low level original acts. Can you say Joey MacIntyre and the Duke Boys?
I am torn over the boat race. Who really watches it? I won’t lie, in past years I have sat on the riverbank watching the races with everyone else. Namely because there is nothing else to do but watch the river until they get out there every 30 minutes or so for 3-5 minutes at a time.
What else can we do on the riverfront that would draw as many people, but without the costs associated with hydroplane racing and expensive air shows? Maybe make the event more music oriented and bring in bigger name acts?
Another question. Is the Freedom Festival too big for Evansville? Are they overly ambitious in wanting to put on such a huge festival downtown? I think maybe so.
I wish GAGE great success in what they do with the Freedom Festival. Hopefully they can keep the ball rolling and keep it alive.
Klinzy
August 26, 2008 @ 04:30PM
Lot of great ideas here. The best way you can ensure they are seen by the right people is to email them direct to the downtown division of GAGE at info@downtownevansville.org
In addition to the two full time positions, GAGE are also looking for a part-time committee of volunteers to help run the event. If you’ve got ideas on how the festival should be and want to see them come to fruition, what better way to do it.
cody
August 26, 2008 @ 04:31PM
i think the one day pass things is a great idea.
i do agree i could cringe at another cover band in evansville.
i do know that you did not have to have a button to get into the beer garden it was put on seperate. my friend was in charge of that entire event. i am sure it was still going towards thunder though.
maybe hosting like an x games style wakeboarding tournament i am sure there is a circuit out there somewhere.