This is the Seventy-Third article in a semi-permanent column for Stroud Arts that appears in the Stroud American. The mission of these articles is to inform, educate and inspire you, the reader, to Make Art Happen in your life and the life of our community.
DAVID TIMMONS
Stroud Arts
Last Saturday, June 12, from 10am to 5pm, Downtown Stroud’s ‘SummerFest 2021’ was the hot place to be!
With the First Annual Team-Up of Stroud Chamber of Commerce, Stroud Fire Department and Stroud Arts with support by the City of Stroud and the Kids Zone Sponsored by BancFirst, over and Main Street Cleaned up, (except for some glitter and stray paint) the event organizers and participants can attempt to recover their well spent energies!
The official number of total attendees may never be known, but I can give some basic statistics based on observations of guests during the event;
Age Range: Newborn to Senior Citizen.
Male to Female Ratio: 1:1
No. of Guests estimate: 1000-3000+ Participant to Guest Ratio: 1:1
Participant to Guest Ratio: 1:1 Out of Town Guests to Local Guests: 2:1
No. of Men in Kilts: 3 (Observed) – Thank you to the Pipers from Tulsa!
Gallons of Water used by the Fire Department: 1 Water Tower (at least)
No. of Kids drenched by the Fire Departments: All that wanted to cool off!
No. of Adults drenched by the Fire Departments: All that were too close!
Favorite thing to observe: All the Classic Cars
Favorite Kid Art Activity: Face Painting
Favorite Kid Sport: (Tie) Foam Sword fighting and Water Cannon Battles
Favorite Wine: Yes
Was the event a success? Everyone looked like they were having fun, even the Fireman pulling the truck!
Every event has a metric that measures the success or failure of an event. For some events, the metric is financial and for others it is total attendees.
I have always judged the success or failure of an event based on the Enjoyment Ratio.
No. of people Having Fun - No. of people not having fun = Success of Failure of Event.
I saw a lot of smiles and heard a lot of laughter and applause from the event guests. So, the event metric shows that SummerFest 2021 was clearly a success for our guests.
I also saw a lot of smiles from the Event Organizational Participants as they gave their time, energy and financial support to bring a unique family friendly event to our community. So, the event metric shows that SummerFest 2021 was clearly a success for our participants.
I hope that SummerFest 2021 will be the beginning of an event that will continue to grow and prosper each year and eventually become a festival that will draw guests and participants from near and far. But that can only happen with support of local community members and organizations.
Next week I will update you on Stroud Arts next big event coming up in September – The Stroud Arts Medieval Faire.
Make Art Happen!