ShawneeDispatch.com

The Culp family had a plan of attack when it came to attending Old Shawnee Days events this year.

Family members attended Thursday night’s concert with Liverpool, a Beatles tribute band, which quickly turned sons Matthew, 9, and Jason, 5, into Beatles fans. They went to the parade Saturday, and then came back for other festival activities with Sunday’s slightly-cooler temperatures.

“It’s always something we look forward to every year,” said Rana Culp, mother to Matthew and Jason. “Also, since it’s on Facebook now, that helped, too, with the anticipation of what’s coming up.”

The Culps were just one of many families taking advantage of the variety of activities offered at the 44th annual festival. Donna Sawyer, chair of the Old Shawnee Days Society, said even though this year’s festival did not reach attendance levels it has in the past, there were several bright spots over the weekend.

“We had a very good year,” she said. “Crowds were down a bit from usual on Saturday, probably due to the heat. But we had the biggest parade we’ve ever had with 141 entries.”

Sawyer said an early estimate for overall attendance was 75,000 to 80,000 people. She said the society was pleased with the turnout for concerts, kids games and activities, with about 6,000 people coming out for Saturday’s Starship concert.

“It wasn’t our biggest crowd ever, but we were very pleased with the crowd, and the crowd seemed very pleased with the concert,” she said.

Another new feature this year was the JUMP! Ultimate Dog Show, with high-jumping Frisbee dogs performing several times over the weekend.

“People loved the JUMP! dog show; we had huge crowds for that at every one of their shows,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the festival didn’t reach attendance of more than 90,000 as it has in past years, likely because the oppressive heat Saturday between 3 and 6 p.m. was a big factor.

“I don’t blame anyone for not being out in the heat and humidity Saturday afternoon,” she said. “Sunday we had a great crowd, but the weather was much nicer.”

One children’s activity that enjoyed greater participation was the “Ticket to Fun” experience that allowed children to participate in 12 living history activities, organized by the Shawnee Town Museum.

While it was the second year for the Ticket to Fun, a new, professionally-designed “ticket” helped attract more families to activities that included taking a quiz in the schoolhouse, ordering from the dry goods store and taking an old-fashioned picture wearing 1920s clothing.

More than 300 children turned in their tickets to receive a prize, and families seemed to appreciate the free activity.

“I had one parent say to me that they didn’t realize there was so much for children at Old Shawnee Days,” said Sharron Uhler, Shawnee Town education curator.

One of the ticket activities helped Shawnee Town track where participants were coming from, with 184 from Shawnee, 159 from elsewhere in Johnson County, 28 from elsewhere in the Kansas City metro, and 92 from Kansas and 12 from Missouri, outside of the metro area. There were also seven participants from states outside Kansas and Missouri.

Overall, the festival proved to be a success, Sawyer said.

“I’d like to thank everybody that supported us, all of our sponsors, all of the city staff on the Police, Fire and Parks departments, because we certainly couldn’t have done it without their assistance,” she said.

Comments