by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
What started as an idea has turned into a seven-week, downtown spring festival that may be difficult to ever match, never mind top.
When the Festival Downtown 2003 concludes this weekend, it will mark the end of one of the most successful stretches of City and privately-sponsored events ever seen in Jacksonville. City officials estimate over 250,000 will have come Downtown during the two-month stretch. From Sail Jacksonville to the opening of the new $34 million Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville to the birth of the Jacksonville Film Festival and the rebirth of the Jazz Festival to Saturday’s Kuumba Festival, April and May have been filled with exactly what organizers envisioned: finally, something for everybody.
“It was a huge success,” said Audrey Moran, Mayor John Delaney’s chief of staff.
From the Ritz Theatre to Hemming Plaza to the St. Johns River, it was tough to find a weekend in which nothing seemed appealing. There were spoken word shows, avant garde theater on a tall ship, performances by the symphony and river tours. There were grand reopenings — the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art completed a two-year, $5 million renovation — and one-time events: The City’s May 3 “Thank You Jacksonville” party at Berkman Plaza.
There were returns of downtown favorites — FridayFest in Hemming Plaza — and even big-name comedians in concert; Ben Harper entertained a sold out Florida Theatre crowd May 7. There were bike races and an exhibition softball game between Delaney’s crew and a contingent from the local media. You could even get your boat blessed and take a tour of downtown’s newest abodes.
Many of the individual events were free, but the whole festival cost a small fortune. Between what the City spent promoting everything and what each venue spent advertising their event, the price tag is tough to determine.
“The challenging thing is there were so many partners,” said Lisa Rowe, who works as a spokesperson for the Better Jacksonville Plan but moonlighted (pro bono, of course) as one of the festival’s main organizers. “There was the [City] office of Special Events and other City offices. JMoMA, the River City Band, the Landing all played a role. It’s really difficult to determine if we broke even. One of our goals was to get the Jacksonville Film Festival off the ground and that was extremely successful.
“JMoMA sold hundreds of new memberships during their reopening.”
Rowe said the seven-weekend festival was the brainchild of a mayoral retreat.
“We talked about all the amazing things going on downtown during the spring and realized this was a perfect opportunity to package them all together,” said Rowe.
It’s not fair to say this year’s seven-week festival was a financial write-off, but making money was very low on the priority list. Both Rowe and Moran agree the objective was to stage enough different events that people who hadn’t come downtown for decades would cross the river perhaps simply out of curiosity. The hope now is, enough people will have enjoyed themselves this year to come back for many years to come.
“It was an investment,” said Moran. “I think it was a terrific way to provide a variety of entertainment options at a variety of venues. If the goal was to reach a widespread segment of the community, then we needed a lot of time and a lot of events. Those interested in jazz may not have been interested in baseball. We wanted something for anybody and everybody to come see downtown.”
Moran and Rowe also agree everyone involved should take advantage of the festival’s success and use that as momentum for planning next year’s festival. While there won’t be a new ball park to open, they believe the community will always want to experience the Jazz Festival, Friday afternoons in Hemming Plaza and take tours of renovated historic buildings.
“The new mayor [John Peyton] needs to assess it. But based on the fabulous response we’ve had from the community, I feel confident it will be a project for the next administration,” said Moran. “Our goal was to attract people to downtown who had not been here in years. And it worked.”
Rowe, who has seen first-hand the renaissances of downtowns in Little Rock and Memphis, believes this year’s festival is the start of something even bigger. Sure the grand openings may be absent, but Rowe is counting on other events becoming mainstays of an eclectic, semi-changing lineup.
“I think it was successful enough to prove it was worth doing again,” said Rowe, who lives in Springfield, another area of downtown slowly revitalizing itself. “I would hope it continues in its current form. In Little Rock, they have a month in the spring and a month in the fall. In Memphis, it’s in May, but April is starting to get pretty busy. We want to keep it a manageable size, but it can always get bigger and better.”
Ask her to pick a highlight and Rowe struggles.
“It’s impossible to pick one event out,” she said. “The opening of the ball park was fantastic, the Jazz Festival was wonderful and the World of Nations is always so incredible with all the cultures. The reopening of JMoMA was one of the most fantastic things ever in downtown.”
How about May 2, Lisa?
“FridayFest started up again, JMoMA reopened, London Bridge had its six-month anniversary party, there was an after-party at the Knight Building lofts and, when we got to the Omni, we were serenaded by a barbershop quartet,” said Rowe.