By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Black Swamp Arts Festival sent crowds home this weekend with bulging shopping bags, full bellies, and music rolling around in their heads.
“I think yesterday might have been a record-breaking day,” said Amy Craft Ahrens, chair of the concessions for the festival.
Black Swamp organizers haven’t yet found a way to accurately count festival-goers. They have tried images from drones, photos from the tops of downtown buildings, and this year tried hand-counters that clicked off people as they entered the expanded beer garden in the concert venue.
“And of course you have people who come all three days,” Craft Ahrens said.
There is really no good way to get a definitive number – but the Black Swamp Arts Festival coordinators know that this year was big – really big.
“Yesterday and Friday were our best days ever,” Dave Shaffer, former chair of the festival, said Sunday as he watched the unusually large numbers continue coming into the beer garden.
“People are still coming in and buying strings of tickets” for beer, Shaffer said as Nikki D & the Browns sang their gospel blues on stage.
Craft Ahrens said sales were up for beer, food and merchandise at the 27th annual festival.
The beer supplier, Heidelberg Distribution, takes the surplus beer back each year.
“They’re not going to be taking much back,” this year, Craft Ahrens said.
And the food vendors went through countless pounds of potatoes, sirloin tips and corn dogs.
“Everybody’s happy. Everybody wants to come back next year,” she said.
Out on Main Street, the artists were also pleased with the number of people buying – not just browsing.
“Most of the vendors that I visited with are loving the crowd,” Stacy Poca, chair of the visual arts at the festival, said late Sunday afternoon. “They had great sales yesterday and typically today is even better.”
And the music kept pumping all three days.
“I think it was fabulous from start to finish,” said Tim Concannon, co-chair of the music with Cole Christensen. “I think it was a really fun weekend.”
Acts came from as far away as Madagascar and as close by as Bowling Green’s backyard.
“We had a little bit of local flare,” Concannon said.
The Black Swamp Arts Festival gets good music and artists because the event organizers know how to treat the performers and artists, according to festival chair Bill Donnelly.
“People passed on some bigger name things so they could be in Bowling Green,” Donnelly said.
They love Bowling Green – and Bowling Green loves them right back – filling the streets for the artists, and the seats for the bands.
“We appreciate the community coming back and supporting this,” Craft Ahrens said. “One-hundred percent goes back into the festival for the next year.”
Donnelly was reveling in the festival’s success late Sunday afternoon as he walked through the art vendor’s area, wearing a wide-brimmed paper hat made in the youth arts area.
“It’s fantastic. We’re exuberant,” he said of the festival. “This is for the community – to connect art and the community.”
And his hat? Well that was a symbol of the magnificence of courageous art.
“I had to be courageous enough to put one together,” Donnelly said.
The success of the festival was especially vital after much of last year’s event was drowned out by rains, and after downtown Bowling Green has suffered a business drought during the past two summers of construction.
“It was great to see the return of tens of thousands of people, after the challenging – if not grim – year businesses have had downtown,” Donnelly said.
This year was perfect – “the weather, the music, the artists,” he said.
Last year, venues had to be repeatedly covered and uncovered as the rains came and went – but mostly stayed.
“This is the weather you want. This is as good as it gets,” Shaffer said on Sunday.
Artists who stuck out the rain last year and returned this year were given signs for their booths stating, “I survived the hurricane of 2018,” Poca said.
“We really wanted to show our appreciation to the artists who toughed it out,” she said.
In addition to the unknowns from the sky, this year’s festival organizers were worried about the uncertainties down on the streets, since the downtown pavements been ripped up for much of the year.
“Our concerns going in were the streets and sidewalks,” said Alex Hann, co-chair of site logistics with Doug Cubberley. “But the city and contractors worked to get things buttoned up.”
As the festival approached, there were also worries about having an adequate number of volunteers. When it started Friday night, there were about 700 people signed up – which is a little on the slim side, Donnelly said. But working together, they pulled it off.
Along the way the festival has picked up some new committee members in recent years, Todd Ahrens said.
“I think we have a lot of new committee members who have really jumped on,” Ahrens said. “It’s been really great to get a new group of people committed to this.”
The festival has not only added people – but also ideas for more artistic opportunities, especially for kids and teens, Donnelly said.
“We’re working. We’re never satisfied,” he said. “This is great, but what’s next?”
With that attitude, “this festival will continue to thrive,” Donnelly said.
