The 2022 Corn Hill Arts Festival was July 9th and 10th, 2022.
Chairing the Festival this year was truly an honor for me. What impressed me so much is the time invested by the Festival Management Team (FMT) and ALL the volunteers throughout the year and during the festival weekend. And the simple fact that collectively we as neighbors support this year after year speaks volumes. So, whether you volunteered or not, you played a role in supporting and promoting the festival. On behalf of the Neighborhood Association, I thank you.
This year’s Festival had a few “firsts”:
- The new mobile app “Grandstand” gave attendees access to artists lists, booth locations, entertainment schedules, and more.
- A new exhibit called “ROC Local” was introduced, highlighting local performing arts organizations/artists, and will return in 2023.
- CHNA partnered with Fleet Feet to sponsor the return of the Corn Hill 5K run, with nearly 300 participants.
- CHNA provided support to the Clarissa Street Reunion for a booth at our Festival, and worked with the Dr. Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence for students to shadow volunteers as part of their experiential learning initiative.
Overall, the Festival was a great success operationally. Official crowd estimates for the two days were over 100,000. Anecdotally, artists and food vendors indicated it was a very good weekend for them, with many saying they had record sales. After the Festival, the FMT met to identify what worked and what didn’t work, input which will inform areas for improvement for 2023. If anyone wishes to provide feedback, please don’t hesitate to email at [email protected].
I have many people to thank: Robin Plummer, my dear friend, next-door neighbor, and co-chair is such a pleasure to know and work with and is poised to run an awesome Festival in 2024; Bill Kelly, 2019 Festival Chair, was helpful, patient, and knew just how much help I needed and when; Rachael Gochenaur hit the ground running and provided a tremendous amount of support to me and the entire Festival Management Team. Joanie Fraver, Ginny Browne, and Jeff Holdsworth provided invaluable support and training. My Sister Bonny Mayer asked if I needed help with anything and to my delight (but not surprise) took anything I threw at her.
