Less than 72 hours following the 2006 Orange Blossom Festival, Riverside unexpectedly killed the 12-year-old event. City officials claim they squashed the event due to recent violence, over-abundance of alcohol and overall lack of a cohesive citrus theme at the two-day festival.
Indeed the event had strayed from its original roots as a celebration of Riverside's historic navel orange industry and was attracting less of a family-oriented crowd, which did tend to increase the "fight quotient" somewhat. But alcohol has been flowing at the event from day one and sporadic fighting has always been an issue. When you attract upwards of 250,000 people, there's bound to be some problems -- alcohol induced or not.
2004
Orange Blossom Festival
With that said, there's no doubt the festival needed to be brought back around to its citrus roots and be less of a typical street fair. The city is promising to bring back a smaller, much-tamer and culturally-oriented celebration next year, which we fully support. But this knee-jerk reaction of outright canceling the OBF looks more like a pre-determined political ploy. Barely before the streets were swept following day one of this year's festival, a city councilman was already threatening to kill the event:
"I want to drive a stake through the Orange Blossom Festival's heart and kill it now," he said. "It's not the event we want. It's a cheap street fair and it attracts the kind of people we don't want in Riverside. There's something about the event that appeals to some of the worst of society, the troublemakers. We need to kill it before someone gets killed."
But here's the thing folks, the OBF's biggest problem stems not from the type of people it was attracting, but from the schizophrenic city in which plays host. In short, Riverside has been caught in a "big city" versus "little town" syndrome for many years. As such, a bureaucratic quagmire often develops.
With regards to the OBF, some wanted a smaller, city-funded event, while others repeatedly questioned the city's financial support of an event of any magnitude. And of course, there was always the anti-alcohol crowd (or in reality, the anti-beer crowd). The end result was an indecisive city hall that couldn't make up its mind over whether it wanted a small community event or large regional festival. In essence, this left the OBF walking a financial tightrope while trying to cater to both crowds -- a pursuit it apparently failed.
Let's hope the "new" festival has much better support and a much happier fate.
Related
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - Festival ends, but talk of shaping new event begins (May 25)
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - Orange Blossom Festival axed (May 24)
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - City Council to consider ending festival tonight (May 23)
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - Bitter orange (May 23, Editorial)
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - Street fair fighting for life (May 22)
Update
- Riverside Press-Enterprise - Let festival blossom (May 28, Editorial)
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