Three Rivers Festival Attendance Up, Arrests Down
By: FOX Fort Wayne News
Updated: July 21, 2009
At last years Three Rivers Festival, police made a total of 12 arrests. This year that number dropped to just 4.
Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York says that “the whole theme of the Three Rivers Festival has changed.”
Back in 1999, police had 20 arrests during the festival; in 1994, 44 arrests were made.
York notes that theres also been a decrease in the number of beer tents. “Its more family oriented” says York attributing that to the decrease in arrests.
Three Rivers Festival Executive Director Mayumi Carboni is also thrilled with how this years festival turned out. “It was much better than I hoped” says Carboni.
Carboni also says attendance in general was much higher than expected. “Every single event that we had for this year had much more attendance than last year”
Around 400-thousand people attended the festival last year. This year Carboni estimates between 520-thousand and 560-thousand came out to the festival.
“Attendance increased by 30, 40-percent easily” says Carboni.
