The 2008 Skiatook
bluegrass Festival was a success! The bands were
absolutely wonderful. We sold approx. 300 tickets which was
better than last year. We had five different states as
well as 25 different Oklahoma communities in attendance. We had
many more vendors than last year. Even though it rained both
Friday and Saturday, the grounds remained in great shape.
This was largely due to the improved drainage system implemented
by the City of
Skiatook as well as the the hard work down by several
dedicated volunteers in cleaning up the limb debris and mowing.
The businesses of Skiatook help more financially this year than
ever before. Special thanks goes out to Osage
Million Dollar Elm
Casino for being the major contributor.
With that said, there is always
room for improvement.
We need to better organize our workshops and the Children's Tent
went relatively unattended. As with any non-profit, we need
more volunteers. We need to improve our marketing efforts for our
own community i.e. Skiatook. It's representation was very
low compared to the over all attendance.
The Skiatook Bluegrass Association Board is entertaining many
ideas for next year. One of which is making Thursday night a
gospel night. We believe it will peak the interest of
many local churches. We would like to build a permanent
stage as well as increase shade opportunities for the guests. We
are in the process of securing great bands. As of yet, I
have no major announcements. We are finding that today's
economy has made a major increase in booking prices BUT rest
assured next year's festival will be bigger and better than ever.
--Larry Nunley
