ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Brink Pleased With New Festival-Style Carp Fest




Julie Brink, director of the Archbold Area Chamber of Commerce, said Monday she was very pleased with the 2012 Archbold Carp Festival, held Thursday through Saturday, July 19-21.

For Carp Fest’s 33rd year, Saturday activities were centered in downtown Archbold, to give the events more of a “festival feel.”

“I thought it went great,” Brink said, “especially since this was the first year for the new format.

“We’ve started a list of things we want to do differently. But overall, it went really, really great.

“For the run, we hoped to have a few more runners, but this was the first time we had the inflatable arch at the start-finish line, and it was nice to have the Archbold Legion start us off by presenting the flag and the national anthem.”

While the final scoring was calculated, a “Zumba” flash mob, group of dancers doing the Zumba exercise dance, performed.

“It was a nice atmosphere,” she said.

“We had a really nice kiddie area. We had lots of compliments on that.”

The childrens area included the Black Swamp Arts Council Kidz Zone, offering free art projects, a giant infl atable jump-on toy, and pedal tractor pulls.

Also getting praise was the dunk tank.

Criticisms

On the list of things to do differently are more food vendors on the street offering more variety of fare.

“And we should put the stage on the shady side of the street,” Brink said.

The stage, with its black surface, was in the sun all morning. When it came time for the Diaper Dash Baby Crawl, the black surface had absorbed so much heat, the children almost immediately began to cry when they were placed on the stage.

Brink also said the Farmers Market should be moved onto the street. The market was set up in its usual Thursday location on Depot Street. Brink said some felt the crowd simply passed it by.

The Saturday night street festival for adults went well, she said.

“It was very relaxed, very mellow. At 8 to 8:30 pm, it started picking up,” she said.

Brink said it was also a busy weekend with sports events and an Archbold Community Theatre play.

“July is a very busy time,” she said.

Fish Fry

Jerry Rohrs, chairman of the annual Archbold Lions Club fish fry, said attendance for the Friday night meal was down by 50 to 100 persons, he said.

While attendance at the Lions Club auction was also down, Rohrs said the event raised about the same amount of money as last year.

“We were pleased,” he said.

“The weather was great. It was the nicest night of the summer. We had fun people, who came and had fun.”–David Pugh



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