History of Riverfest
RiverFest started in a mall parking lot on July 4th, 1986. The first crowd was estimated at 1,000 – 1,500. Local musicians played from two flatbed trucks. Fireworks, hotdogs, and soft drinks were added to create the ideal Southern “Fourth of July” Celebration. In 1987, RiverFest moved to a site next to Gadsden State Community College and the spectators grew to approximately 5,000 people. In 1990, the event moved from July to the second weekend in June and the location changed to its current site, on the banks of the Coosa River along Highway 411, a four lane state highway. This also was the year that named entertainers were hired, “The Manhattans” and “The Forrester Sisters” were the first named entertainers to take the stage and play to a paying crowd, along with the change in location and talent, crowds were estimated at ten to twelve thousand each of the two nights. More emphasis was placed on attracting the younger audience so a Children’s Festival was initiated, recognizing that the children would bring their parents and grandparents. “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were the hottest act for youngsters and they made a Saturday morning appearance to what was estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 kids.
Bike races and all sorts of tournaments were a part of the offering for RiverFest 1991, but entertainment remained the driving force behind ticket sales. “The Spinners” and “T. Graham Brown” were the big names along with “The Simpsons” making an appearance for the kids. The Children’s festival in Moragne Park continued to grow and reinforce the belief that the festival was and would remain a family friendly event. In 1992, the festival shifted from June to the weekend before Memorial Day. The decision was made to bring people to the event many of whom left for vacation in early June when the school year was over. “The Forrester Sister” and Ronnie Milsap proved to be a very strong line-up and the event grew to approximately 20,000 for the two nights. In 1993, premier artists such as “Rickey Skaggs”, “Crystal Gayle”, “The Fabulous Thunderbirds”, and the Diptones” performed using two stages at times simultaneously. Although the crowd continued to grow and estimates were approximately 15,000 on Saturday night and over 12,000 on Friday night, it was the first and last time that two acts were scheduled at the same time on different stages. Expenditures rose in 1994 to accommodate the changing crowd, but the numbers of attendees rose as well. When ‘Lorrie Morgan” performed as the featured entertainer on Saturday night, the crowd was conservatively estimated at over 20,000. “Percy Sledge”, “The Lovin Spoonful”, and “Restless Heart” filled out the line-up. Total crowd estimated 35,000. 1995 brought “Martina McBride”, “Sammy Kershaw”, “Michael McDonald” and “The Barkays” and a Thursday night show was added with Melissa Manchester to perform at Gadsden’s Convention Hall.
Riding the crest of country music’s popularity in 1996, headliners “Travis Tritt” and “Colin Raye” drew the largest two night crowd in the festival’s history. Other entertainers were female star, “Holly Dunn” and Gadsden’s own “Tim Watson & Black Creek”. This year Riverfest tried a Christian concert that was held at Mort Glossier Ampitheatre on Thursday night: Brent Lamb and singer/songwriter Paul Overstreet performed. Crowd estimates for the two nights, based on ticket sales, were slightly more than 45,000. RiverFest offers talent overload in 1997 with “Billy Dean”, “Suzy Boggus”, “B.J. Thomas”, “Linda Davis”, “Lisa Brokop” and a surprise guest appearance by the TV star of “Wings”, Crystal Bernard. The number one singing group in country music history raised the entertainment bar in 1998. “Alabama”, highlighted a talent filled RiverFest as the featured act on Saturday night. Also on stage were “Toby Keith”, “Kansas”, “Little River Band” and “Bo Diddley. This spectacular line-up along with a second stage adjacent to the Coosa River playing “Tropical Steal” and a championship water ski/jet ski show brought record-breaking crowds both nights. “Alabama” was brought back in 1999 for a second year along with “Diamond Rio”, “Juice Newton”, “The Mighty Commodores”, “Joan Jett & The Blackhearts” and “Survivor”.
The year 2000 brought the 15th year celebration for RiverFest. A combination of Urban Soul, Rock and country led the way to a very successful line-up. “Owsley”, “Eddie Money”, “The Gap Band”, “The Beach Boys”, “Chely Wright” and “Montgomery Gentry” brought crowds estimated for the two days in excess of 53,000. The year 2001 brought heavy rains, a tornado, and flash flood warnings on Friday night and a drop in temperature for Saturday night. This was the year, “that could have been”. The Friday night line-up featured “Sister Sledge”, “Creedence Clearwater”, and “Kenny Loggins”. All three acts performed but the threat of bad weather kept many people away. Saturday morning brought temperatures in the high 30’s and a wind chill that brought out the blankets and heavy coats. Attendees huddled up to watch new country star “Jessica Andrews” and country superstar “Vince Gill”. Estimated crowd for the weekend was around 33,000. Rain, thunderstorms, lightening and even a tornado warning washed away RiverFest in 2002. Although bands “America” and “The Commodores” were able to take the stage on Friday night, Saturday night was far worse. Due to the terrible weather, Keith Urban was only able to perform for 15 minutes and Lonestar never took the stage. Crowd estimates were low. Friday, 15,000 and Saturday approximately 11,000 showed up, many left as quickly as they came. This would have been described as the low point in RiverFest History. When you pay almost $100,000 for two acts, as we did for Keith Urban/Lonestar and all you get is just fifteen minutes of performance time. It left RiverFest officials shaking their heads.
With two straight years of inclement weather, RiverFest 2003 lowered the ticket price to $20 for the weekend. The entertainment line-up featured “Rhett Akins”, “Chad Brock”, “Daryle Singletary”, “Wade Hayes”, “Deborah Allen”, “Linda Davis”, “The Kinley Twins”, “Herman and the Hermits featuring Peter Noone”, “Gary Puckett”, and the all time great “STYX”. Once again, the weather brought us to our knees. It started raining about 5:30pm and didn’t let up. Again our headliner STYX was unable to take the stage. Not more than 10,500 showed up, many sitting in the rain for over an hour hoping it would let up…but it didn’t. Some fans were upset at purchasing tickets for the past three years and seeing less than half of the performances scheduled. Letter’s were sent to the editor and street comments encouraged RiverFest to change the dates back to June. So we did, we moved to the second weekend in June. In 2004 we opened with Black Creek, Darryl Worley” and “Patty Loveless”. Saturday’s performers were “Rollin In the Hay”, “Johnny Rivers” and “Grand Funk Railroad”. The weather was hot…but we had no rain either day. Friday’s estimated attendees were 6,000 and Saturday brought around 11,000 people.
The Chamber announced it’s line-up for RiverFest 2005 in early February, only to have one of the headline acts, Toto, pull out in May. In spite of the difficulty created with printed ads, radio, TV, and posters, having to be pulled and new ones created, two new alternative groups were secured. Friday night’s line-up was “Air Supply” followed by two replacements for Toto…”Gin Blossoms” and “Vertical Horizon”. Saturday night featured country music legend “Charlie Daniels Band”, ”Billy Currington” and “Malibu Storm”. It was raining when Charlie took the stage however the crowd was cheering wildly during his entire show. All acts were able to perform their entire show. The threat of bad weather once again pulled the crowds down…a weekend total of about 19,000. RiverFest 2006 offered a wide array of musical genre fitting most tastes in music. This year Thursday night offered a “Road to RiverFest” talent show offering local talent a chance to open up the show on Friday and Saturday nights. Performers for “06” included Midnight Star”, “Lifehouse”, “Jeff Bates”, “The Bellamy Brothers” and “SHeDAISY”. Crowds grew to approximately 31,000 for two days.
The largest one day crowd in RiverFest history was Friday, June 8, 2007. With excellent weather both Friday and Saturday, and featuring “Chris Daughtry” from American Idol fame, RiverFest 2007 broke all records for tickets sold and total income causing a pre-ticket sell out and the gates to close at 9pm. Friday’s show included ”38 Special”, “Cherish”, and “Daughtry”. Saturday’s line-up included “Bobby Bare”, “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band” and “Joe Nichols”. Crowds for the two days were estimated at 60,000.