Streetfest Succeeding Despite Challenges

If you want to know just how popular West Deptford’s annual RiverWinds Streetfest summer concert series is, just open the filing cabinet in recreation director Greg Ley’s office.

It’s an elephant graveyard of demo CDs, promo posters, band photos and media kits, a silent testimonial about how much interest there is in getting onstage at the RiverWinds amphitheater.

Or, if that isn’t proof enough, browse through the bookmarks on Ley’s computer. A few keystrokes and clicks loads up one band’s website–tonight’s performers, in fact, New York-based Desert Highway–and a YouTube video gives an instant glimpse into what a performance might look like.

“This is how we got the band–from a phone call from a resident that said, ‘I saw these guys, and they were awesome,’ ” Ley said.

It amounts to a mountain of talent Ley and committeewoman Donna Szymborski can mine when it comes time to build the lineup each year.

That’s where the first challenge lies: finding bands that will not only draw a crowd, but keep everyone from teenagers to senior citizens interested.

That rules out the extreme ends of the spectrum–heavy metal and hard rock are out, and Lawrence Welk probably isn’t ideal, either–but there’s plenty of middle ground for them to choose from.

“We want them to appeal to everyone,” Ley said.

That means a lot of dance bands, plus bands like Desert Highway or another new addition this year, Captain Fantastic, an Elton John tribute, that fit in the mainstream.

They know which bands have drawn big crowds before–Parrot Beach is a popular one, as is Don’t Call Me Francis, which Ley and Szymborski should be the biggest draw of the summer.

“Francis night is a little overwhelming,” Ley said, with a crowd that overflows the amphitheater and surrounds.

The bigger difficulty has come in the past few years; after the economy took a header, keeping the concerts free became a challenge–but a challenge Ley and Szymborski see as critical.

“We want to provide a service that we’ve been providing, and be able to not have an impact on the taxpayers,” Szymborski said.

That means being a bit more flexible than in past years. Before, the township would ask a company–like Sunoco, which used to pony up about $5,000 every summer–to completely sponsor one band, which could mean laying out a few thousand dollars in one shot. But now, they’ve shifted getting two, three or even four sponsors for every show in an effort to recoup the costs.

And it’s a strategy that’s working, Ley said, as every single performance is sponsored already, and most have multiple sponsors, and vendor’s fees–like the one paid by Botto’s to run the food and drink operation–help take another chunk out of the costs. Still, there’s a little ground to make up before the township has completely balanced out the $37,200 West Deptford spends on the 12-week series, and getting there is Ley’s ultimate goal.

“It’s one thing to say the concerts are sponsored, it’s another to say they’re completely financially sponsored,” Ley said. “It’s been tough.”

They’ve been creative in keeping costs down, too, cutting one of the shows this year, eliminating overtime, dropping portable toilets and booking all the bands in-house to save on fees.

Szymborski said they were even able to use people who have to perform community service as part of the cleanup crew.

It all adds up to a summer experience unique to West Deptford.

“There aren’t many communities that are doing something like this,” Ley said.

Both he and Szymborski pointed to the series as creating something of a town center every Friday night, with people making a complete evening out of it, grabbing a bite at RiverWinds Restaurant before or after the show and spending a few hours with their neighbors.

“It’s really a community event, and people come together,” Szymborski said.