RIVERBEND RECAP: Thinner crowds, smaller business sales

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Bigger acts didn’t necessarily mean bigger crowds for Riverbend this year.

“This year was worst than any year before,” Cold Stone employee Andrea Krouse said.

Every year, the local businesses at the heart of Riverbend suffer. However, even with the shorter schedule and bigger acts, Cold Stone still saw the worst profit deficit since being neighbors with the festival.

Riverbend blocked off the area the week before Memorial Day for set up, causing major customer loss for those Riverfront businesses.

“That made our Memorial Day weekend sales plummet,” Krouse said. “Memorial Day is pretty good for us usually. Any major summer holiday really helps us a lot but this really put a damper on our sales badly this year.”

An estimated $12,000 damper.

As for the festival itself, Friends of the Festival won’t say how this year’s numbers compared to last year’s. But it was evident that the crowd was thinner.

“Yeah, maybe the crowds were smaller, but we had elbow room. We weren’t rubbing up against folks, strangers we didn’t know,” Friends of the Festival’s Amy Morrow said.

When asked how the festival crowd compared to last year, Krouse said, “I don’t even think, I think the majority of our business wasn’t the crowd and that’s crazy because usually it’s more of the crowd.”

The crowd might have been smaller, but Morrow says the number of people coming in from out of town grew.

“We did get more attention and people were talking about it,” Morrow said.

Morrow is confident that the added attractions and bigger acts will continue to spread the buzz about the festival in the future.