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Downtown Days big success thus far, with one more event And there's one more event today: Downtown Days Gospel Sing/Worship Service October 14, 2012 Click on headline for Downtown Days, 2012 album, with a dozen or so photos By Ed Waggener By any measure it has been a great festival. The weather was perfect. The crowds were big - probably not a record - but really good. And, importantly, this year's Downtown Days/Folklore of the Old West seemed to offer more than a compensating benefit to local businesses, the ones which keep the Downtown viable every year. There was more parity between the locals and the brought on elements, even in the area of entertainment. Local groups, showcasing Columbia area, rising talent, were in no way outshone by the highly paid, out of town groups. This is a credit to the local organizers, who, this year more than in years past, seemed to be attuned to the real goals the festival should have. For at least one business, the Cafe on the Square, the final tallies aren't in, but Brigette Reagin, one of the owners, said that Friday night, October 12, 2012, was much better than the corresponding time frame in 2012. "We couldn't be more pleased," she said. Almost everything they had planned for happened, with only a few underestimates. "We baked extra cheesecakes," Mrs. Reagin said, "but we still ran out." Inside, her husband Ned said the steady flow of customers kept the unique Columbia eatery at near capacity all day. "If there are one or two people waiting in line, we couldn't really handle more," he said. "For almost all day," he said, "it was like that." The cafe spent weeks of planning for the event, it's busiest weekend of the year. Visitors came from all over, from neighboring towns, Louisville, Lexington, and Richmond - reunioners from everywhere.. Even as it was impressing first time visitors, it was re-impressing stalwart regulars. Mark Royse, with Pyles Concrete on their Wolf Creek Dam project, repeated it over and over. "Columbia is really lucky to have place like this. It matches anything in the big cities." And that seemed to be the mood. Downtown Days again offered a great place to campaign - with the candidate for Circuit Judge, the Adair County School Board, and Columbia City Council everywhere. The Adair BAND Boosters showed they wouldn't abandon their popular traditional projects despite the early success of their Bingo Hall. They were there selling tickets on the next band giveaway of appliances. As as been the case in recent years, the Adair County Garden Club epitomized the spirit of what a Downtown Festival should be. Their booth offered breakfast items, sausage and biscuits with the Fairplay (local) Meats sausage cooked by a local celebrity, Westlake Regional Hospital's popular CEO David Rasmussen. The booth was busy, but the ACGC didn't wait for business to come to them: Stalwart garden clubbers Barbara Armitage, Angie Loy, and Maury aka melewi Lewis took goodies to the masses on the square. And along they way, between sales, they spread encouragement, gave reviews, and when it was pried out of them, a little advice on disciplines as diverse as marketing and horticulture. Never learned why, but the Re-enactment of the James' Gang robbery of the Bank of Columbia didn't happen this year. It's always eagerly awaited and is a proven midday crowd holder. Eight hundred to one thousand or more spectators usually come early, vie for the best views, and hang around to eat after its over. The Food Court appeared to be slight smaller this year, but those stands which were here had queues waiting to be served every time I passed them. The Kids Carnival set up in the Municipal Parking lot at S. Reed and East Fortune rarely seemed busy, and with parking hard to find during most of the event this year, giving up that much prime real estate to the rides may need a new look. All in all, we thought it was the best in years. Not perfect. But more local. Seemingly less expensive "big time" involvement - which has never been sensible from a business standpoint - and definitely headed in the right direction. My own viewpoint is, admittedly biased in favor of locals. I get regular feedback from my sons who have businesses in another historic downtown. It should come as no surprise that promotions work for their businesses when they are 1) Smaller and more frequent, and 2) When local businesses and taxpaying residents (of their city) are polled before, during, and after the event takes place to make it work; and have events which enhance long term goals to sustain downtowns. This time, the vector is a a winning one. This story was posted on 2012-10-14 08:12:19
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