A weekend of boats, bands and beer made for an event that was a “massive” success.
The 13th annual Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival held Friday and Saturday at Centennial Park was record-breaking on many levels.
“The weekend went very well,” said co-organizer Rick Harrmann. “We set records again.”
Thanks to a company that tracks cellphone analytics, organizers no longer have to guess how many people attended the event. This year, cellphone analytics detected 13,700 unique cell phones throughout the weekend.
"That's over 13,000 people," Harrmann said. "It was amazingly successful."
There were about 200 participants in the water events, which is more than usual, and the community raft race auction was more successful than usual.
"For the community raft race, we provide a number of raft guides, all of those teams bid on a raft guide," Harrmann said. "It generated far more money than it ever has in the past. On every scale, we probably did better this year than we ever have."
He attributes the success in part to the event overall, and also to people simply eager to be out because there are still fewer events now than pre-COVID.
The planning committee also put a lot more focus on social media marketing and moving the event from June to July also played a part in high attendance, Harrmann said.
The Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival this year was hosted by Royal Gorge River Initiative Organization, Fremont Community Foundation and the Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance Foundation, who split the profits among their organizations.
"All of the money goes to river improvements, river safety, small business programs and also nonprofit grants through Fremont Community Foundation," Harrmann said. "All of the money stays in the community,"
In fact, all of the changes on the Arkansas River in the whitewater area are there because of the whitewater festivals that started 13 years ago, Harrmann said.
"I can't give enough credit to the sponsors," he said. "We had more sponsorships than we have had in the past. There was more interest in being involved. I can't give enough credit to the sponsors, because it wouldn't happen without them.
The event also couldn't be pulled off without the more than 160 registered volunteers.
"Of course, it can't happen without people showing up and having a really, really good time," Harrmann said. "The crowds were great, we had very few problems. I give credit to the police department because they are so much more part of the community than they ever have been before. I loved seeing them there, people loved seeing them there, and they enjoyed being there."
He said looking at the big picture of the event, so many things went right and it was more enjoyable than years past.
"Kudos to the community -- talk about an event that is of the community, by the community and for the community, this really was it," Harrmann said. "It really couldn't have happened without everyone coming together. It was a massive success."
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Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival a ‘massive’ success, sets records - Canon City Daily Record
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