Kidzfest survives sprinkle

Light rain fell on Washington Friday afternoon, leaving many to wonder if Kidzfest would be rained out for two years in a row. The rain was fairly constant for the first two hours of the festival but that didn?t stop hundreds of people from coming out to enjoy the food, games and live entertainment.

Washington County Hospital and Clinics marketing coordinator Carrie Garman said the turnout was very good considering the damp conditions. She was at the square all day Friday and saw that it was a nice day through the morning and early afternoon. When 3:30 rolled around, storm clouds had descended on the area. Garman announced to the vendors that Kidzfest would start at 4 p.m., 30 minutes earlier than scheduled in an effort to beat the impending rain.

As she watched the sky darken, Garman said she ?almost felt sick to my stomach.?

?I was up there all day and it was beautiful,? she said. ?It was hot. I thought, ?Wow, it?s going to be great! Then the clouds came in, and it started to look like last year.?

Last year?s Kidzfest was hit with a downpour that forced Garman to cancel the event part-way through it. The rain was nowhere nearly as bad this year, although some of the 47 vendors did leave early because of the showers.

?A lot of them left early but a lot of them also stuck it out for the entire event,? Garman said. ?So many people stuck around for the entertainment.?

The entertainment included dancers from Melissa?s Stairway to the Stars and Studio E! Members of ATA Tae Kwon Do showed off their skills as well, and the evening concluded with performances from two bands, ?Punny Band? and ?Starbolt.? Garman said Punny Band was making its Kidzfest debut and that the band had never performed before so many people before. Starbolt has become a Kidzfest regular and has played for the past four or five years.

The hospital gave away bags with little trinkets inside. Garman said she started with 800 and passed out 600 to 700 before the night was through. She said Friday?s Kidzfest could have been the largest ever had it not been for the rain.

Garman said she talked with her Kidzfest planning committee last year about the possibility of moving Kidzfest indoors. She said there was a consensus that Kidzfest contains too many events to fit all of them inside a building.

?As far as a rain date goes, we try to have it the day after, but because of the weekend and other things happening on the square, it was hard to find a date that would work,? Garman said.

Garman said she was pleasantly surprised to see the events such as the pony rides and the Fire Department?s smokehouse stay as long as they did. The weather did prevent one event from setting up and that was the bounce house. Garman said she canceled the bounce house when it looked as if the wind would pick up, which is very bad for bounce houses.

Gary Murphy dressed up as ?Bandana the Clown? for Kidzfest. He entertained children all evening long, accompanied by his grandson and sidekick, Ben Murphy, who traveled from Bettendorf to visit his grandparents. He is the son of Derek and Dorrie Murphy.

Murphy said he has performed as the clown at Kidzfest about six times. He said that even though he was wearing clown makeup, he wasn?t that worried about the rain. He said he worries more about the heat, because that causes the makeup to feel very uncomfortable.

?I don?t worry about my makeup running from the rain,? he said. ?I have to roll with the punches. After all, ?The show must go on.??