Posted: Jul 12, 2011 8:43 AM by Melanie Yuill
Updated: Jul 12, 2011 9:02 AM
The first-ever Montana Folk Festival wrapped up Sunday and on Monday cleanup was underway.
The crowds from the weekend are gone and workers were busy on Monday, taking down tents and stages. Golf carts were also being packed up into a tractor trailer to be hauled away and volunteers drove around to the stage sites collecting all the chairs.
George Everett with Mainstreet Uptown Butte says the event was a success. He says he doesn't have final numbers yet on the crowd but estimates at least equal to last year's National Folk Festival. He adds that event organizers are getting a lot of feedback and will discuss all of it in the coming weeks.
"We sit down and we get feedback from the people that attended as well as the volunteers that worked it, so we get a lot of good feedback a lot of good suggestions about what to improve and we try to take everyone seriously and implement the ones that are really good," Everett said.
Everett says people can still provide feedback on the Montana Folk Festival website or Facebook page. He says so far it's been all positive. He tells us the only negative of the festival he knows of right now is that beer and soda sales are down from past years.
Fundraising by the Bucket Brigade during the festival also brought in less money than expected.
Everett said last year the Bucket Brigade raised about $75,000, and this year he estimates they've raised close to the same amount. He doesn't have exact figures yet but says although the community was generous this year he doesn't think they met their goal to raise $100,000. Everett said leaders within the community volunteer for the Bucket Brigade to encourage the crowd to support this event.
"The people we think are leaders of the community to do this. At the same time they collect money which turns out to be very effective. People give them money because they're giving them information, they're greeting them, making them feel welcome, but to Butte that's almost as important as gathering money to pay bills, is to gather the goodwill that comes from treating people really well and having them come back over and over again. And if they had a good time and a great experience they may return to Butte in a week or two," Everett said.
The final numbers from the Bucket Brigade should be released on Tuesday.
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