Advertising pays off for 2004 Valleyfest

Valleyfest organizers appear to have accomplished their goal of making the annual festival a more regional event.

An informal poll taken during the event on Sept. 25 in Mirabeau Meadows Park showed that nearly half of those attending were first-time attendees and 30 percent lived outside Spokane Valley. “It’s a sample survey,” said Valleyfest organizer Peggy Doering. “This is not a scientific survey.”

The 2004 Valleyfest was full of changes. The location moved from Terrace View Park to Mirabeau. Events were added, including a juried art show and an open house at the Valley YMCA. The food vendors expanded. The parade route was moved to University road from the University City Mall to Valley Mission Park.

Organizers bought $15,000 worth of television advertising and $5,000 in other advertising to pitch the event. In 2003 they spent only $2,800 total on advertising.

It seems to have worked. Attendance was up 6,000 to 28,000, and 95 percent of those polled in the informal survey said they planned to come back in 2005.

Parking, which was expected to be challenging because of limited on-site parking, seemed to go well. Doering said she doesn’t have an exact count of people who rode the Spokane Transit Authority shuttle buses from the Valley Mall and other locations, but STA started the day with small buses and soon had to bring in full-sized buses to deal with the flow.

The Valley Mall also noticed a boost. “Sales were up in September significantly,” said mall marketing manager Lesa Berry. Berry, who refused to release specific sales numbers, said that rise could be partly attributed to the late start of the school year. “I felt like Valleyfest did contribute to increased traffic.”

Doering is already planning to make next year’s Valleyfest the best ever. “The juried art show went very well,” she said. “We hope to expand that next year.”

She also wants to tinker with the booth layout and add more food booths. Most food vendors ran out of food this year. Doering also wants to change the parade route to run on Sprague from Pines to University. It’ll be more accessible there, but she’ll have to convince the Spokane Valley Police Department to close one of the Valley’s busiest streets. “Next year we’d really like to do the parade Friday night,” she said.

Doering, who is not paid for her planning efforts, said she has thought about expanding Valleyfest to a two-day event. “I would if I had more volunteers,” she said. “There’s no paid staff to do everything.

“I have plans, but I have to deal with reality. Money and volunteers are the big reality.”