I think 4000 is overstating it.  Why not have asked the Sheriff his crowd estimate?

They know exactly how many people were there.  From the GrahamFest website, “All guests are required to wear armbands, including children.”

A special thanks to J.C. Weaver and his festival director Mary Lin Brewer for an awesome job.  I attended and I was amazed at the turn out.  It truly was a great weekend.  Providing the community with a festival that offers that caliber of entertainment is awesome.  Not only that, it draws tourists to our area and that benefits every resident.  If ten out of towners attended, that is ten more than we would have had without your festival.. and I am a witness… we had visitors from multiple states, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia… enjoying the music, loving the food, staying in our hotels, visiting other attractions… its a benefit to us all.  The Sheriffs Dept and volunteers did a super job ensuring the attendees a safe experience.  No riff raff, no crimal activities.. no drunken stupors (limiting the amount consumed by “punches” in the afore-mentioned armbands, SMART!) I am sincerely grateful for the experience and look forward to next year!!

Dan:  do you believe everything you read?  Or did you count the armbands?  I was there.  There weren’t 4000 people in attendance.

This should not in any way detract from the hard work put into the festival by its producers.  All I’m saying is their crowd estimates were a bit large.  They’re a great addition to the community as is their festival.  Keep it up.

Actually - they’re claiming 4K a day.  That’s certainly not accurate.

Will, my point didn’t come across.  They provided an “estimate” of the attendance, which also sounds very high to me.  My point is why are they estimating, when they know exactly?  Estimates are notoriously inaccurate…

T_Que, were you paid by Weaver to give tours of the mansion, or were you a volunteer?

I was not paid by anyone??  Have I somehow offended you??

Oh, certainly not!  I’m just trying to maintain a balanced perspective.  You really know this area well and speak very highly of it - you’re an asset to this community.

When it comes to Grahamfest, we’ve got a multimillionaire throwing lots of money around, so it can be hard to tell the facts from the carefully orchestrated public image they want to portray.  For example, the newspaper has run two front-page stories on this event - before and after.  We don’t even see that much coverage for Chautauqua!

This thing has really been hyped, and like Will, I’m to the point I’m skeptical of a lot of what I read in this paper about it.  As another example, consider the supposed $2 million dollars worth of audio equipment reported earlier by the Enterprise.  The paper has a responsibility to verify the information they report.  As Will has already requested, how about a second opinion on some of these statements?

If I may:

All anyone is saying here is 8000 ppl probably weren’t at Grahamfest this week.  My estimation would be about 1/3 that. 

They did a fine job putting it on and i’m glad they do it.

As for the sound and light equipment, I would imagine it went home with its owner - Soundstage in Roanoke.

I also attended and compared to the year before, there was a significant more attendees than last years event.  The grounds, entertainment (including the activities for children) were fabulous, the supurb work done by the Wythe County Sheriff’s department, the volunteers and the workers of the staff at Grahamfest made the event even more enjoyable. The addition of many food vendors, craft & gift booths made the festival an all day event to enjoy.  The work they put into the grounds showed and it was rewarding and upscale compared to many of the festivals I have attended in this area.  If you were there, you would have seen the chairs fill at the main stage upon performance of JC Weaver & Confederate Railroad, not to mention the many who were along the hillside in chairs.
The lighting and soundstage is unlike any I have had the pleasure to see in this area.  Where can you go to a festival and have an abundance of music from any stage you choose?  Not many, none that I have seen in this area.  I applaud the staff at Grahamfest and the performers who entertained.  Keep up the great work....it shows!  Chatuagua is great, but it needs a little lift and change.  I also attended that and the food was to expensive and not much else to do to spend the day there.

Yay Babs! I do agree!  Dan thank you, I try to know the area, I am excited about the area, and I love this influx of community spirit. 

As to J.C. throwing his money around, Mr. Weaver worked very hard attaining this American Dream and I consider it wonderful that he has chosen our neck of the woods to hold this festival.  He has a big and kind heart and I think it is great that Mt. Rogers is able to benefit from his dream!

The turnout was awesome by anyone’s standards.  Could there have been more? Certainly! Could there have been less? Surely!  The fact that is important is that it was great fun for anyone who did choose to attend.  Could it have been done better? Ask ten different people and you would get ten different ideas on how to make it better.  The point is, they did a great job coordinating a very difficult task.  Kudos to them.. if J.C. wants to spend $2 mil on sound equip or $2.00… thats not the important thing.. the important thing is he did it for our community.. and that is awesome!

Just out of curiosity, how does/did Mt Rogers “benefit from his dream”? I’m not agreeing or disagreeing. Just wondering.

Hello Chico!  Mr. Weaver donated a portion of the ticket sales to the Mt. Rogers Community Services Board!  Above and beyond I would say… The Festival would have been great even without the charitable gift.. but the fact that he did donate is a testament to his generosity.

OK, that’s what I thought. I think it’s nice of Mr. Weaver to make the donations that he does to the CSB. And I think I’ll leave it at that :)

Last year’s donation was $1000 if I recall correctly.  I always thought Mt. Rogers was an odd choice since it’s a quasi-state agency.  But whomever has money can toss it wherever he or she sees fit.

PS - nobody’s criticizing the quality of or amenities at or performers at the festival.  I am just talking about their skewed crowd estimates.

Yes, I am aware.. my point is… I was there as well.. and when I was on the Main Stage side of the Festival Grounds, I was unable to see the other side.. and vice versa.. Different people were coming in the evening than had been there during the day, some were there the 31st, some were there the 30th and some were there on both days.. some just showed up to hear their favorite bands and some spent all their time at the acoustical tent… many of the volunteers became festival goers when their “tour of duty” was over… many came out with one purpose, to see this beautifully historical mansion they have been dying to go into all their lives… the bottom line… all of this attention focused on “just how many people really went to the festival..” is a bit skewed up in itself.  There are a lot of fact finding pursuits I would say are a lot more pressing and important than how many people realllly attended Grahamfest 2008 in Virginia.  **smiles** I admit I get my priorities a bit out of whack at times as well.. but as a newcomer to the Wytheville Community.. I am very proud of the accomplisments and spirit expressed by so many and it is disheartening to find that attendance is such an issue.  Especially when it was a raging success and attendance was impressive!  **grins** I guess the best thing this proves.. if the exact number attending is the only “dispute” of a weekend long festival… That is pretty dang impressive in itself!!  **wooohooo from the Texas Gal**

I can understand both sides of the predominant debate here. On the one side, you have, from what I can tell, T_Que saying, “Look, whether there were 4K per day or 4K total, it was still a very nice event and beneficial for the community and, bottom line, everyone seemed to enjoy it.” And I don’t think Will is saying anything like “it wasn’t fun” or “it wasn’t a success.” I think what he’s saying is, “Don’t throw water on my back and tell me it’s raining.” And I think that’s a very valid point to make, especially since the integrity of the journalism of the Enterprise is really what’s in question with this point. I personally don’t care if there were 4,000 people there per day or 4,000 people total who actually heard about it. If it was a success, and by all accounts I’ve read and everything I’ve heard it was, then the success will stand on it’s own merit. If you had 4,000 people total, then report that. If you had 2,368 people per day, then report that. But do the research and give me the facts. Like Dan said, they knew the exact number of people based on the wristbands, so an estimate is pointless. I guess the real topic of debate here is the factuality of the information reported and not the degree of success of or enjoyment people got from GrahamFest.

Oh, ok.  Well, this is where I exit guys!  The integrity of the journalism investigation of The Enterprise into the attendance numbers of Grahamfest 2008 is not my top priority.  ** smiles ** I thought we were debating the enjoyment of Grahamfest.. teach me to stick my nose where it doesnt belong!  :) Adios!