Record crowds attends 7th festival

Constitution Square State Historic Site is a few blocks east of where most of the events of the Great American Brass Band Festival take place. But the square might as well have been on the Centre College campus over the weekend.

``In past years, we really haven't that much spill over (of festival goers) while the feztival was going on,'' said square manager Brenda Willoughy. ``But this year, we had scores of people. A lot of them were festival goers, and those that weren't we turned them into festival goers by sending them down to Centre.

``The numbers of people milling all the way from Centre through downtown to the square tells me there must have been about the biggest crowd ever.''

No it wasn't ``about'' the biggest crowd. It was ``the'' biggest crowd.

According to Jerry Boyd, director of logistics for the three-day event, the seventh annual festival drew an estimated 44,000-48,000 people. Last year's attendance was estimated at 40,000.

The new record attendance includes individual record crowds for Friday evening's hot air balloon race and Saturday evening's picnic, Boyd said.

``We are only estimating, but there's no question the crowd at this year's festival was by far the largest,'' he said. ``The fact that we didn't have rain helped, but I think it has more to do with the word continuing to spread around the country that this is a special event.''

Boyd's comment was confirmed by records kept at the festival's visitor center. People from all 50 states and 25 foreign countries signed in.

The theme of this year's festival was the circus, but Boyd viewed it more in terms of two tracks than three rings.

``When you try to engineer something as big as this -- from setting up the stage to making sure both the bands and the public are taken care of -- you know there are going to be moments when it's hard to keep the train on the tracks,'' he said. ``While we had to blow the whistle a few times, things generally went well. The train didn't jump the tracks.

``There's always room for improvement, but I can say that the seventh was super.''

So can George Foreman of Centre College, founder and director of the festival.

``The best barometer measuring how well the event is going is not only the size of the crowds but their mood. Our crowds appeared very happy,'' said Foreman.

What made Foreman happy was that there were several in the crowd who were first-timers.

``Several of the folks who came up to me to say how much they liked the festival were people who had come for the first time,'' he said. ``And every one of them said they are going to come back next year and bring friends.''

What these people will see at the eighth annual festival may be an international theme, Foreman said.

``We've already been discussing the idea of having some sort of international flavor. We've already been talking about lining up the leading brass band in England as one of the key attractions,'' he said.

But for now, Foreman will savor the seventh installment of what was not that long ago just a dream.

``We started out in 1990 with less than 10,000 people. Now we're nearing 50,000,'' he said. ``If we didn't hold another festival, I could look back and say it's been an idea -- a dream -- well worth pursuing.''