LITTLE ROCK - After forty years of providing big name entertainment to the people of Arkansas, the organizers of Riverfest say they are finished for the time being. The event, which in its heyday drew up to 250,000 visitors, was estimated to have an impact of over $30,000,000 on the community at large each summer.
“We can no longer deliver the experience that Riverfest fans have come to expect,” Executive Director DeAnna Korte said in a statement released Tuesday. “Rising costs of performers’ fees, coupled with a greater number of competing festivals around the country are the underlying factors leading to this decision.”
The festival board cited the closure and subsequent bankruptcies of other similar events as a growing trend across the country.
The lineup had featured nationally known acts ranging from rapper Wiz Khalifa to country superstar Justin Moore in 2017. The festival was the focus of a number of giveaways done by InsideFortSmith.Com earlier this Spring.
The annual budget for the festival was around $2,600,000 which organizers say was a tough amount to work with when it came to continuing to bring in high-quality acts.