SEARCY — A new event for the 12th annual Get Down Downtown festival will be a 5K run.
The festival, which is sponsored by Main Street Searcy, is Sept. 27-28 at 200 W. Race Ave.
The run, called the Funnel Cake 5K, is something that Main Street Searcy has wanted to do for several years.
“We thought a 5K would be great,” said Amy Burton, executive director of Main Street Searcy. “We’ve talked about it for several years but never really had the manpower to do it. Board member Richard Stafford stepped up and took the lead and said he would work on it. Richard and Kristi Thurmon are also working on it. Both are on the Main Street Board of Directors.”
The Funnel Cake 5K begins at 8 a.m. on Sept. 28.
“It is the first of, hopefully, an annual 5K we’re doing in conjunction with Get Down Downtown,” Stafford said. “We added the event to just add to the fun of the festival on that Saturday morning. This will add to the festivities of the festival itself and raise more money for Main Street Searcy.”
Stafford said the board tries to add new things each year.
The name of the event is related to food vendors at the festival.
“We always think of funnel cakes as a festival food,” Stafford said. “It was during a brainstorming season that we came up with this idea of running for a funnel cake.”
Instead of receiving a medal or some other award for finishing the race, runners will receive a voucher for a free funnel cake at Get Down Downtown.
“We’re also having a one-mile event for those who don’t want to do the 5K,” Stafford said, adding that this race is geared more toward children. “The Cotton Candy Classic — we’re doing the same thing. Instead of a funnel cake voucher, you get a cotton candy voucher.
“We figure it will be mostly kids at the one-mile race.”
The sponsors of the race are ARCare and Pruitt Agency Inc.
The preregistration cost is $35 until midnight Sept. 27. The cost the day of the race is $40. Runners who register by Wednesday will be guaranteed T-shirts.
To register online, go to racesonline.com/events/funnel-cake-5k.
Burton said she thought the 5K would be a good fit for the festival.
“And it would be a great way to start the Saturday morning,” she said. “As a nonprofit, doing a free admission event, we’re always looking for a way we can actually generate from revenue out of it.
“Obviously ticket sales aren’t the way to do it. So we’re always looking for ideas on things we can actually do that generate revenue.”
Burton said the Get Down Downtown event has grown a lot in its 12 years.
“The budget that we set has doubled in 12 years,” she said. “The first couple of years, we had 75 vendors. Now we have more than 125 vendors. We had 127 last year.”
Burton said she is happy with the rate at which the festival has grown.
“We tried to grow it at a pace that is reflective of our attendance,” she said. “We didn’t want to get too big too fast. We’ve seen a lot of events go under that do that.
“If you don’t have your attendance to support a huge number of vendors, they don’t do well and they won’t come back.”
Burton estimates that about 30,000 people attended last year’s event.
“Attendance has gone up substantially as well,” he said. “Without selling tickets, attendance numbers are an estimate. We have learned that the food vendors are very good judges of attendance. Also, the musicians, headline acts that tour all over the country and the workers, are great judges of crowd size.
“We also rely on surveys and input from the vendors and the acts to help us gauge our attendance. We feel confident that we’re going to let in new vendors this year. We’re expecting every bit of 30,000, if not more, this year.”
Country music star Sammy Kershaw is the headline act for Sept. 28. The Wilson Brothers Band will open for Kershaw.
For more information, visit www.getdowndowntown.com.
Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.