IT WAS NOT a big parade, but it was a community parade. The festival was not huge, but it was good. The street dance did not have the Rolling Stones or the Boston Pops, but the music was good and people had fun. The fireworks could not rival those in New York, Boston, Washington or Philadelphia, but people oohed and aahed just the same.
Matt Slater and the other organizers of Saturday’s resurrected Twin Rivers Festival and Bernie Toso and the members of the Flint Hills Optimist Club who put together the fireworks display gave Emporia a fine gift — a real Fourth of July celebration that began well and should just get better.
One of the problems with the original Twin Rivers Festival, which was abandoned years ago, was that it began with the intention of knocking people’s socks off and drawing crowds from a wide area. It was going to be an Event with a capital E. The festival was big, all right — downright unwieldy, in fact — and leaned heavily toward the sale of arts and crafts. Somewhere along the line, the idea of giving the people who attended a good time got lost.
The new festival has begun without the burden of inflated expectations. The idea behind it is to give Emporia families something fun to do together on the Fourth of July, and that is just what Saturday’s festival did.
The festival was put together in a hurry, and it showed. People enjoyed it anyway. Put enough people together on a beautiful summer day and give them some things to do and to watch and they cannot help but have a good time.
The Twin Rivers Festival should become a regular feature of Emporia’s summer. With a whole year for planning, the 2010 festival should be bigger and even more entertaining. But the festival organizers should keep their focus on having a community celebration. Make it a party for the people of Emporia and their neighbors.
If, in the future, word gets out and visitors start to show up, fine. Welcome them and make them feel at home.
But never forget: This is a community festival.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor