The CEO of the company that organized Little Rock’s revived RiverFest last year said Thursday the festival is scheduled to return in 2019.
The decision to continue the three-day event along the Arkansas River came just a few months after an organizer told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the company needed to regroup before determining the festival’s future after attendance numbers didn’t meet expectations in 2018.
“We’re finishing up state fair season Sunday, and then we’ll have all hands on deck for RiverFest from now until the festival is over,” Universal Fairs CEO Mark Lovell said.
The Memphis-based company resurrected RiverFest after the nonprofit that had previously planned the event canceled it in 2017. It had been a staple in central Arkansas for 40 years.
Organizers will have eight months to plan the festival that takes place over Memorial Day weekend. Lovell said that provides plenty of time to organize and promote the event, which was put together in just over two months in 2018.
He attributed the low attendance numbers — which have not been released — to the short timeframe the company had to book vendors and performers. Last year's lineup included Kip Moore, Young Thug and Highly Suspect.
“We got a late start last year,” Lovell said. “We had to get the word out that we were having the event, so that was probably 70 percent of the problem.”
While the company is still in the early stages of booking artists, the CEO said attendees could expect the same number of acts, or possibly a few more.