3. OVERVIEW
The City of Alexandria, in partnership with
dozens of local arts organizations and
programs, combined the success of existing
cultural events, and brought them “all under
one roof” for three days in Downtown
Alexandria.
AlexRiverFête, a brand-new festival
celebrating the arts, culture and heritage of
Central Louisiana, debuted the weekend of
May 9-11, 2013.
Together with numerous local businesses,
sponsors, participants, teams and civic
leaders, the AlexRiverFête 2013 celebration
was a large, unified community effort that
embodied the spirit of collaboration.
4. AlexRiverFete is a new large-scale community
event – a new initiative combining three separate
events. Most important was the focus on quality of
life. In the past, Alexandria struggled to identify,
“Who are we? What is special about our home?”
As such, the team developed a marketing campaign
positioning the event as a fun-filled celebration of
Central Louisiana’s unique heritage, aiming to
capture the “spirit” and flavor of the local landscape.
Overall event attendance was anticipated between
10,000 and 15,000. Total attendance was around
11,950 people throughout the three-day
AlexRiverFete.
The designated Site Group and COA Public Works
were responsible for executing setup, maintenance
and break-down of the event. Over the course of the
three-day AlexRiverFete, City of Alexandria crews
and event volunteers were diligent about the
cleanliness about the festival grounds, with
adequate trash receptacles and trash pick-up
schedules to ensure a clean environment for guests.
“Man on the Street” surveys with festival-goers
indicate an overwhelmingly positive response. Many
guests said they liked how they could “pick and
choose” from a variety of family-friendly things to
experience, see and do throughout the three-day
event. Feedback also indicates guests enjoyed
coming to the downtown area for an entire
weekend, as opposed to visiting for a few hours for
one event.
Local newspaper The Town Talk published an
opinion piece days after the event, summarizing the
importance of community development and its
critical place in the community, stating:
“It's not too soon to say that, in
important ways, the city of Alexandria's
first-ever AlexRiverFête was a success …
“While community development is tough
to quantify, it is real, relevant and vital. It
is about shared pride and nurturing a
sense of place and identity. It has much to
do with volunteerism and the volunteer
spirit --something special that draws
individual people together to effect
positive outcomes for the greater good."
Given the marketing budget, Alex River Fete
launched an aggressive advertising and publicity
campaign via traditional outlets (print, television,
and radio) as well as new media (web banners, e-
blasts/e-newsletters and Facebook ads).
Most of the Central Louisiana media offered
additional exposure for Alex River Fete through
matching editorial, bonus advertising spots, larger
ad space/placement, extended air time or
additional interviews. Through heightened
advertising and exposure, other media outlets in
surrounding parishes picked up the news. For
example, South Louisiana Sports Scene magazine in
Gonzales and a radio station in Baton Rouge
reached out to the City for interviews and ad buys to
further promote AlexRiverFete to their drive
markets.
In particular, KALB TV News Channel – the region’s
#1 station – was highly instrumental in both
building anticipation and promoting the event. In
addition to posting about the festival on Facebook
and Twitter, the station aired an entire week of fete-
related stories.
In the course of 75 days, the festival was featured in
approximately 50 different stories from 21 different
media outlets across the state. Considering the short
time frame for planning and executing the media
strategy, this goal exceeded expectations and was
key for driving increased attendance.
5. Segment Anticipated Cost Actual Cost
Coordinator $8,000 $7,577.27
Publicity $18,000 $23,606.49
Site Group $6,500 $7,056.71
Volunteers $1,500 $800
Cultural $7,500 $7,752.43
Kids Fete $4,000 $3,525.13
Entertainment $31,500 $30,554.59
Local BBQ $4,000 $986.9
Fete-Budget
Anticipated = $90,000.00
Actual = $81,859.52
5%
39%
5% 9%
2%
8%
22%
10%
Anticipated Hard Costs
$90,000.00
1%
37%
4%
9% 1%9%
29%
9%
Staff Publicity Logistics
Volunteers Cultural Kids Fete
Entertainment Quein
$81,859.52
Actual Hard Costs
6. Private Sector In-Kind
Fete Coordinator MCB $3,000
Publicity Fox 48 $1,700
Lamar Advertising $4,600
Kinetix $3,000
Cultural ROSAC $2,000
AMoA $17,000
ACCL $5,000
Kids Fete Kids TREE House $1,500
Entertainment Gotta Groove Prod. $10,000
PPS $1,600
Total: $42,400.00
City of Alexandria In-Kind
Public Safety $20,484.50
Public Works $17,763.74
Total: $38,348.24
0
12500
25000
37500
50000
Private Sector COA
Anticipated Actual
Fete In-Kind Contributions
7. 26%
26%
25%
22%
COA In Kind Private In Kind COA Budgeted GAEDA
$38,348.24
$45,000.00
$42,400.00
$170,748.24
$45,000.00
Total Fete-vestment
Actual Costs + In-Kind Contributions
Preliminary event budget estimated total event
hard costs around $90,000 and anticipated total
event costs, including private and public in-kind
contributions was around $150,000.00.
The City’s contribution was $45,000: $35,000
budgeted with an additional $10,000 from City
Council. GAEDA contributed an additional
$45,000 generating a combined budget of
$90,000.00. ARF 2013 hard costs came in under
budget at $81,859.52.
AlexRiverFete 2013 was a community driven event
having unprecedented buy-in from the private
sector comprising 25% of total event investment.
Combined program income including hard costs
and in-kind contributions from both the public
and private sectors totaled $170,748.24.
8. 0
2250
4500
6750
9000
Thursday Friday Saturday
Anticipated Actual
Attendees
0 3750 7500 11250 15000
Moderate Projection High Projection Actual Out of Town
Fete Attendance Overview
Fete Attendance by Day
Attendance
This year’s event met projected attendance
goals. Overall event attendance was
projected between 10,000 and 15,000. Total
attendance was around 11,950 people
throughout the three-day AlexRiverFete.
THURSDAY:
Dinner on the Bricks
550
FRIDAY:
Art Walk (Day 1) + Headliners
3,150
SATURDAY:
Art Walk (Day 2) + Dragon Boat Races
8,250
TOTAL:
11,950
9. Costs
Economic Impact
0 150000 300000 450000 600000
Quein 2006 Quein 2007 Quein 2008
Quein 2009 Quein 2010 ARF 2013
Impact Comparison
16%
33%
12%
23%
15%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
QUE’IN ON THE RED showed growth as a festival in each of five (5)
outings except for 2008 and 2010, when attendance dropped due
to bad weather. QUE’IN’S five-year impact is approximately
$4,500,000 according to the Alexandria-Pineville Area Convention
and Visitor’s Bureau (APACVB).
NOTE: QUE’IN 2010 cost $106,175.01 more than ARF 2013 and
had $136,430.00 less economic impact than ARF 2013.
$ 4.5 Million
10. Attendance
0 3000 6000 9000 12000
Quein 2006 Quein 2010
ARF 2013
Hotel Rooms
0 37.5 75 112.5 150
Economic Impact
0 125 250 375 500
Total Costs
0 750 1500 2250 3000
Quein 2006 & 2010 vs. AlexRiverFete 2013
Comparative Analysis
$281,820
$418,250
8,052
11,950
143
38
$226,482.77
$120,307.76
Until 2011, QUE’IN ON THE RED was Alexandria’s signature festival
having a combined local economic impact of over 4.5 million dollars
over five years.
AlexRiverFete year one exceeded earlier benchmarks established by
QUE’IN 2010. QUE’IN 2010 cost $106,175.01 more than ARF 2013 and
had $136,430.00 less economic impact than ARF 2013.
132
7,556
$264,460
11. Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I wish to extend my personal thanks and appreciation for your hard
work, dedication, and creative spirit as we launched the first-ever
AlexRiverFête. Culture and collaboration are critical to the health of
any community, but the fact this new celebration was created,
planned, and implemented in just under ten weeks is something
which we should all be proud.
At AlexRiverFête, we showcased and defined what is unique about
our city: the people, the food, and the FUN. Downtown was abuzz as
we gathered with family and friends for delicious dining, live music,
beautiful artwork, and the captivating Louisiana Dragon Boat Races™. With all of these elements
combined, we see that gumbo of ingredients making up Central Louisiana coming together as one great
“soup” while retaining elements of unique and individual contributions. Who wants a melting pot when
you can have gumbo, right?
Community leaders like you help establish and honor Central Louisiana heritage. A festival of this
magnitude means a stronger city. It promotes synergy; builds new relationships; fosters new ideas. Most of
all, it lays the foundation for a progressive Alexandria – shaping it as the ideal place to live, work, and play.
Thanks, again, for your support and dedication to the City of Alexandria, this beautiful place we call home. I
look forward to seeing you next year for AlexRiverFête ’14!
Jacques Roy, Mayor
City of Alexandria
