Community First Saturdays

[Bill Hoff]

I wanted to say how awesome Community First Saturday was yesterday.  Perfect weather, quality food (trucks), great music, local brews, and a nice new location. My wife & I biked down from Springfield, exercised on the Riverwalk, then spent a couple hours just enjoying the environment with company. Kudos to the CFF team.

[FSBA]

I went down there with my girlfriend and I was abit disappointed. The way a friend described it to me was that it was kinda like RAM. When I got there, it was food trucks, beer, a few city sponsored booths, and nothing else. The line to get tickets for beer was almost 20 minutes. Ohwell. My girlfriend was happy with the cupcakes from Le Petit Cheri.

[dougskiles]

I agree with Bill - it was a great time.  I rode the skyway over with my kids, and after getting 3 free Suns tix for doing the scavenger hunt, enjoyed the sunshine and breeze on the riverwalk with the masses of people.  I'm not exactly the "start drinking beer at noon" type, so the lines didn't bother me.  Cupcakes, however?  Those are good at any time of the day and I managed to stuff one down pretty quick.

Great job to Tony Allegretti for organizing these events.

[downtownjag]

Good to hear!

[tufsu1]

I went down there with my girlfriend and I was abit disappointed.

you must be pretty hard to please....it was a great afternoon on the river...and the best part, attendance is FREE!

[comncense]

Yeah I enjoyed Community First Saturday yesterday. It was nice to see a bunch of people with their families out enjoying the day. Had some food from Super Food Truck. The way they handled the Beer Tasting was a little odd and bothersome, but that wasn't really the focus of the day. I spent a few hours out there with my friend and his two daughters, met the Mayor and had a few beers before walking back home.

[Noone]

Sorry I missed it. Had an adventure today Downtown that I'll post. Looking forward to participating in the future at a CFS.

[isphil]

Beautiful day and a great turnout for yesterday's Community First Saturday! I parked at the old courthouse & rode my bike to RAM and back to CFS. The beer lines and food truck lines were long since crowds exceeded expectations. Good time and a great opportunity to showcase downtown.

[coredumped]

It was a great day indeed. I thought the ticket system for beer was a bit weird, but I'm sure they had their reasons behind it. A great way to capitalize on our cities best asset - the river.

[dougskiles]

Beer sales and parking seem to have something in common.

Nobody wants to wait for beer, and nobody wants to drive around looking for parking.

But...

Nobody wants to go to a place that doesn't have anyone in line for beer; nor does anyone want to go to places that have empty parking lots.

The world is so full of contradictions.

[FSBA]

Maybe it livened up after I left, but when I was there it was food trucks, beer, and little else. The way I heard about it I figured there would be people lined up along the riverwalk selling their wares. When I want to fart the day away drinking beer and being by the water I'll go to Huguenot Park.

[tufsu1]

sure Hugenot is great for getting away from it all....but the best thing about the festivities on the riverwalk was the sense of "community"

[fieldafm]

CFS does not advertise itself as another version of RAM.  There are no 'vendors'.  Partners in the event create experiences along the Riverwalk.  These include such things as people working out or practicing Tai Chi along the Riverwalk to experience healthy living, bike tours to experience our area's history and the city's great in town neighborhoods, scavenger hunts(there have been three of those) that guide people around downtown, live local music, kayak trips to experience the river, fixed bike demos, etc.  The only thing being sold is food and beverages and the food trucks represent what vibrant street life should feel like.  Whoever told you it was like RAM was not giving yoy an accurate representation, unfortunately. 

Thank you for trying it out though!  The great thing about this city is that you have ample opportunity to try a variety of different things.  Some you'll connect with.  Some you won't.  No two days should ever have to be the same. 

[TPC]

I was there from about 2-4 and it was awesome. I chatted with Tony Allegretti for a bit and we both agreed that enjoying great weather, live music, food trucks and beer while on the river makes for a great Saturday.

I understand the beer situation was a little odd but once I bought my tickets, the lines at the beer tents were pretty non existent.

Overall I really enjoyed my afternoon and I hope they can keep this level of activities and turnout at First Saturdays.