Weather puts a drag on ChocolateFest attendance
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff Writer
Welcome to spring in Wisconsin, said Mother Nature to ChocolateFest this last weekend.
Turnout was expected to be lower than usual at the four-day festival because of low temperatures and rain over the weekend.
Final numbers for attendance and money made were not available by press deadline, but Mayor Bob Miller had said numbers looked to be down.
“I think it went OK,” Miller said. “The crowds, to me, seemed to be down.
“The weather, of course, played a big role in that,” he added. “You hate to see it this way, but it’s the nature of the beast.
“That’s Memorial Day in Wisconsin.”
Organizers count on the festival to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for the community service groups that make up the festival’s volunteer workforce. That money, in turn, is returned to the community through service projects and activities. Festival organizers were also hoping this year’s event would not only cover expenses, but leave enough seed money to help pave the way for next year’s ChocolateFest.
After extreme heat limited attendance in 2012 – forcing organizers to seek advances on sponsorship money in 2013 – festival leaders were hopeful this year’s event would get ChocolateFest back on track financially.
Just what impact the dreary weather had in 2013 remains to be seen.
ChocolateFest President Bil Scherrer could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
One good piece of news seemed to be no issues related to the opening of the grounds for alcohol consumption until 9 p.m. all evenings.
“We had no police issues related to that,” said City of Burlington Police Chief Peter Nimmer. All the open intoxicant warnings were issued outside of the festival for different reasons.
“We probably would’ve gotten that anyway,” Nimmer added.
Nimmer added that the weekend went, well, normally.
“I would say the weekend was typical for ChocolateFest weekend,” he explained. “Nothing more, nothing less than the past years.
“We had no major incidents, let’s put it that way,” he added. “People were respectful and it was a good weekend.”
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As director of Partners2, I did have a number of families contact me to let me know they would not be attending ChocolateFest due to the open containers being allowed within the park grounds.