The 37th annual Watonga Cheese Festival (now known as the WATONGA CHEESE & WINE FESTIVAL, is now over and reports are coming in from the chairpersons of the various events, with very positive results.
Unfortunately, Saturday morning was marred by an incident involving an elderly man who ran through a rope barricade with his truck and hit a pedestrian, causing severe injury to her. The incident could have been avoided had the local police not been "too busy" to put up the more substantial wooden "sawhorse" barricades as they have done in past years. It is not yet known if the driver of the truck was incapacitated, or if he was arrested. The city police department is closed on Monday for Columbus Day, so we'll have to wait until later in the week to see a report of the incident.
Fortunately, that seemed to be the only cloud over the Festival. The weather was cool in the morning and sunny and warm in the afternoons. The Oklahoma wind wasn't strong enough to disrupt the activities. On Thursday afternoon the town was bustling with vendors setting up their booths and food trucks. Set-up time can be disruptive to some of the merchants on Main Street, but until the City closes off the entire street there is plenty of commerce that goes on, and plenty of parking for merchants and their customers. Most Watongans understand that this disruption is only for one weekend out of the year, and the benefits to the town far outweigh the inconvenience of someone having to move their car from their regular parking space in order to allow a vendor to set up.
This festival has been going on for thirty-seven years (though not always on Main Street), and the visitors here on Friday was reminiscent of the days before the 2007 hurricane. Conspicuously absent from participation and helping was the Main Street Association board and members, though many of the merchants on Main Street benefitted from the influx of visitors to the town. The City itself (and its residents) will benefit from the extra sales tax dollars the Festival brings in. The Mayor was unavailable to appear during the opening ceremonies to welcome visitors but he was seen helping with the ticket booths later that day. The new pastor at the 1st United Methodist Church was on hand to give a prayer at the opening ceremony, which was followed by the entire audience participating in the Pledge of Allegiance. As is tradition, an ensemble from the Watonga High School band performed before the opening ceremony and then played the Star Stangled Banner after the Pledge of Allegiance.
Andy Barrett thanked all of the people involved in putting together the Festival and all of the Sponsors, businesses, and local citizens who donated money to support the Festival. Unless you've been involved in organizing the festival, you may not know how much money it takes to it put on. The Chamber of Commerce relies on ticket sales (wristbands) to pay for the bulk of the expense, but without the cash Sponsors and support of local businessmen and citizens, the Festival wouldn't have as many activities and entertainment to attract people to Watonga. The Festival can no longer rely solely on Watonga and Blaine County residents to bring in the dollars needed to sustain the Festival. It is for that reason that the Festival organizers have taken action to market and publicize the Cheese Festival to Oklahoma City and its suburbs. And this year's marketing efforts seem to have paid off. We'll have more figures on a later post, but judging from the crowds that were present on the streets and the feedback of the vendors, we had a lot of new visitors to Watonga this weekend!!
Watch here for more news about the Festival! /Linda
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