Those behind the annual International Days celebration in Price City met on Tuesday afternoon for a recap meeting, taking time to review the 2021 event and plan for the future.
Boyd Marsing, Price City Councilman and chair of the committee, stated that he wished to review each item and discuss how the celebration went this year. Bret Cammans reported that the ultimate feedback from vendors was overwhelmingly positive in favor of the change of the stage location.
However, at first, the vendors were not pleased with the new arrangement and that the stage was moved. But in the end, they warmed up to the idea there was more room in the park and that could not be accomplished with the prior arrangement.
One thing that had been discussed, according to Councilman Layne Miller, was that there is enough cable to run a couple of speakers into Washington Park to have the entertainment heard by more.
It was stated that Twisted Lemon was using their own music and it seemed as if it made a lot of people congregate around them. Two members of the Price City Parks Department remarked that the new layout made it nice and easy to maneuver the side by side for various tasks and they were not fighting as many crowds to attempt to get through the park.
However, a comment was made by the parks department that it was noticed that the bleachers had been set quite a ways back from the stage. Discussion of keeping that same layout for the 2022 celebration was had, with Councilman Marsing stating that he felt as if crowds bottle-necked a lot less than in previous years.
The only negative presented when discussing the kids’ parade and kids’ day celebration portion was possibly changing the start of the parade from 9:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.
This suggestion was presented as the kids’ day fun is not scheduled to begin until 10 a.m. and giving the parade half an hour to begin beforehand generally leads the children to the booths quicker than vendors have been ready to begin.
This year’s car show proved very successful with 30 cars waiting to register by 7 a.m. though registration did not begin until 8 a.m. It was said to be at such a capacity that cars were being placed in areas they had not been before.
Shifting to the focus of the annual carnival hosted at the celebration, Councilman Marsing shared that he had quite a few people say they were disappointed there was not a carnival, which was echoed by Councilmen Miller and Rick Davis. There were many questions posed on whether or not it would be coming back in following years.
It had been previously decided by the committee that, for the next two years, the International Days celebration would be moved to the first weekend in August. This coincides with the well-loved carnival to ensure that the one that the committee prefers will be able to be in attendance. The typical weekend for the celebration, the last in July, does not work for the carnival as they are tied up with a previous engagement.
After briefly discussing the disc golf tournament and the parade, Councilman Marsing put the spotlight on the annual Lion’s Club breakfast in the park. As the Lion’s Club had made the decision not to host the breakfast this year, it was voiced that there was concern they would no longer wish to at all. It was stated that it is believed that the breakfast is something that many look forward to and wonder if they should find someone else that would like to sponsor it in the future.
Final remarks regarding the moving of the entertainment stage centered on citizens stating that they felt somewhat disconnected from the rest of the fun due to the location. Councilman Miller said that they had already turned the idea around in their minds on placing some vendors closer to the stage next year to combat this feeling.
To gather feedback from the community, Price City has drafted an online survey. Members of community are encouraged to take the survey to provide their feedback on the 2021 celebration and upcoming International Days events.