Organizers behind the rebirth of Little Rock’s decades-running music festival say ticket prices for 2018 are "significantly" lower than last year.
This year, $30 three-day weekend passes can be bought in advance of RiverFest, which will be held May 25-27 along the Arkansas River, Jack Daniels of Memphis-based Universal Fairs LLC said.
Daniels, the event's director, said he expects patrons to feel that prices for entry, food, drinks and other merchandise are “very fair.”
“That is something that we are actively working with all of our vendors to ensure,” he said.
Advance tickets for last year’s event were $40. Gate admission was $55 for the three-day festival, which was held the first weekend of June.
In 2018, early pricing will be in place from March 1 through the end of that month. After that, weekend passes will increase in price. An exact cost hasn’t been announced.
This year's ticket price was derived from a study of operational expenditures, organizers say. The company expects the event to break even and plans to spend about $2 million operationally in the Little Rock area this year, Daniels said. The firm also estimates between 10,000 and 20,000 people will attend each day.*
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“Pricing is very important to us,” the event director said. “It is one of the things when we studied the event that we found to be a challenge that some people had with RiverFest activities in the past.”
The cost of things like food and beer should also decline, he said. The company has made a deal with a nonprofit partner to handle beer sales for a portion of the proceeds.
In July, organizers announced the shuttering of Arkansas’ largest music festival, citing increased performer fees and competition from other music festivals. The festival posted a net loss in 2017 of $300,000.
Riverfest Inc.’s board of directors voted July 18 to dissolve the nonprofit organization and appoint a committee to wind down its operations.
On Dec. 7, Riverfest Inc. sold the brand as well as its online presence to Mark Lovell, CEO of for-profit firm Universal Fairs. Financial terms of the sale were not released.
Gretchen Hall, CEO of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, called her organization’s cooperation with RiverFest's new owner, Universal Fairs, “a perfect marriage.”
“Their events are all about family and friends coming together to do the things that they love and enjoy, and I think that’s just the type of organization that can successfully revitalize our wonderful festival,” Hall said.
Hall noted that RiverFest, in its initial 40-year-run, “was a tremendous destination event and it created a significant economic for central Arkansas.”
This year marks the return of RiverFest’s traditional Memorial Day weekend schedule and keeps its two-stage setup. Performances are set the First Security Amphitheater in Riverfront Park and, tentatively, at the Clinton Presidential Center.
The music lineup — a mix of local, regional and national performers — will be announced in early April.
Daniels hinted that the musicians will lean “toward a country/classic rock theme” as well as “some well-known adult contemporary music.”
“We’re going to target our music and our talent to really highlight bigger names as opposed to simply bringing in a long list of sort-of-known names,” he said.
RiverFest is set to feature an enlarged area for attractions. More than 25 amusement rides and other family-friendly activities are planned in a "family fun zone"
The festival’s layout will not encompass President Clinton Avenue in Little Rock’s River Market Distict — a move organizers say they hope will keep the area "open for commerce."
The smaller footprint, Daniels added, will allow for downtown Little Rock's "main tourism corridor to stay open."
*CORRECTION: Memphis-based Universal Fairs LLC estimates between 10,000 and 20,000 people will attend Riverfest each day. That number was incorrect in a previous version of this story.