District gets ready for busy summer

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By Dustin Lemmon | Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:28 AM CDT | () comments

The District in downtown Rock Island will be using a production company for the first time to help produce its festivals this year.

Representatives from The District and Nvents — based locally and in St. Louis — announced the summer calendar at a press conference Wednesday.

The schedule includes several long-running events, including Gumbo Ya Ya and Ya Maka My Weekend, and the end of Hornucopia, which concluded with its eighth season last year.

Jeff Adamson, chairman of The District, said both the addition of the production company and the end of Hornucopia were decisions made to improve the summer event schedule.

“We’ve done a really good job in years past, but we kind of feel like we lucked out,” he said, adding Nvents has brought in new ideas such as group sales. “We’re trying to raise the bar for the other cities.”

Lon Bozarth of Nvents, who previously served as president and CEO of the River Music Experience, said working with The District will help launch Nvents into the Quad-Cities market.

“It was a real careful selection and we’re very pleased our company was selected this year,” he said.

Adamson said the decision to hire the company for the 2007 schedule was an easy one.

“Nobody really jumped out like Nvents did,” he said. “This is the perfect match. They hold within our budget. Hopefully, it will be a long-term relationship.”

The decision to drop Hornucopia, which until last year was usually one of the first events of the summer, was based on a lack of interest, Adamson said, adding the weather never seemed to cooperate with the event and it wasn’t a popular draw.

Adamson reiterated The District’s desire to raise the level of competition with other communities for summer events. “We’re just trying to get the rest of Quad-Cities to recognize, ‘hey, we’re here,’ ” he said.

District events for 2007

Gallery Hop: May 4

Quad-Cities Criterium: May 28

Gumbo Ya Ya: June 8 and 9

Red, White and Boom!: July 3

Ya Maka My Weekend: Aug. 18 and 19

Rock Island Grand Prix: Sept. 1 and 2

Fright Night: Oct. 25

Galley Hop: December (date to be determined)

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at

(563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.