RiverSplash Ends - Weather 'Didn't Cooperate'

RiverSplash, a three-day festival held in early June in downtown Milwaukee, is no more.

Why?

The weather sucked, that and revenues were reduced.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

RiverSplash, the three-day celebration that has been held along the Milwaukee River in June for 20 years, will be discontinued, organizers announced Tuesday.

RiverSplash featured vendors, food stands and free music on a number of stages along the Milwaukee River between W. Kilbourn Ave. and Knapp St., and from N. Old World 3rd St. to N. Water St.

Bad weather that hit the festival for several years and reduced revenue were the main causes of the cancellation, said Marsha Sehler, a member of the Milwaukee Riverwalk District Board, which staged RiverSplash.

"The weather was really rotten, and all the planning you do doesn't help if the weather doesn't cooperate," she said.

The weather?

All festivals are at the mercy of the weather. Every outdoor activity is subject to it, whether it's a backyard party or a street festival.

It sounds very strange to cite the weather as a reason for ending RiverSplash.

Sure, there was bad weather sometimes, but some of the weekends were beautiful.

The weather wasn't bad in 2008, the night of the shooting at RiverSplash.

RiverSplash also was the scene of a shooting and bottle-throwing incidents in 2008 that required increased security for the then-gateless festival. That year, city officials including Ald. Robert Bauman, Mayor Tom Barrett and Police Chief Edward Flynn held a press conference blaming the violence on heavy drinking by fest-goers during the event and after its closing.

Sehler said that while crowd control problems were not the primary reason for cancelling RiverSplash, "the fact is that we increased our security around the festival, and that added to the economics of it. That made it harder for us to manage financially."

I believe that the crowd killed RiverSplash. Thugs, not the weather, should be cited as the cause.