Plans for an October Red Bridge Festival Are Underway

Red Bridge Festival Planned

By Kathy Feist

A Red Bridge Festival is being planned for Saturday, October 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  

“We’re trying to start small and manageable,” says Red Bridge Festival Committee Chair Stella Crewse. The event is being put on by the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Lane4 Properties.

The festival will showcase local school music groups and dance troupes, carnival games for kids, vendors and crafts booths and food trucks from the immediate area. Wonderscope will also provide scheduled activities for children. “They want to make the community aware of what’s going on in their new space,” says Crewse.

Festival planners are encouraging shopping center tenants to set booths outside their stores to promote their business. “We are charging for booth space, except in the case of tenants,” emphasizes Vickie Wolgast, CEO of the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

Wolgast says the Red Bridge Festival will replace the Chamber’s annual 5K running event. “We wanted to do something more inclusive,” Wolgast explains. “Everyone wants to come to a festival.”

Wolgast says they have plenty of volunteers for the steering committee, but are now looking for volunteers for other capacities, such as setting up and tearing down and anything inbetween.

They are also seeking performing groups, vendors, food trucks and other participants. “I would love to see the Kansas City Fire Department there with a fire truck or the Mounted Patrol with horses,” she says.

Crewse says that if the event is a success they plan to continue to expand it. “Eventually we would like it to be a Fall destination for everyone,” she says.

For more information, visit www.southkcchamber.com or call 816-761-7660.