What a mess.
No one has asked my opinion, and I don’t blame anyone for that, but it sure seems to me like the wisest thing to do would be to mothball this year’s Bessie Smith Strut and try again next year.
Very simply, there are so many things that have to be worked out, and there is so little time to get it done.
One thing I hope has been cleared up is that the folks who run Riverbend did not ask for this mess. More than a few folks want to believe that the whole idea of moving the strut to the festival site came from Riverbend because they saw it as a money grab.
It’s easy enough to make that assumption since Riverbend gets no direct money from the strut, either through admission or vendor sales. It factors in sponsor dollars to help cover the cost of what is essentially a free party thrown for the community. In theory, moving it inside the gates seems like it would make the festival money.