This Season: Staff, volunteers bring festival explosion to Cedar Rapids scene

Festival season is in full swing around Eastern Iowa, beginning with Mount Vernon's Chalk the Walk in early May and ending with Oktoberfest in the Amanas.

But every day is festival season for the duo heading up the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival.

Executive Director Robyn Rieckhoff and Events and Marketing Director Liz Neff already have started a 2017 folder, and will have that year's festival slate set by November.

This year's official kickoff comes with the Tribute to Heroes dinner June 20, celebrating Eastern Iowans whose good works are leaving an inspirational imprint on people's lives. (See their profiles on Monday's Community page of The Gazette.)

The Freedom Festival produces 20 signature events, wrapping up with the July 4 finale, where 125,000 people go downtown for the bang-up festivities.

Another 60 presentations are deemed 'affiliated events,' for which organizers pay a marketing fee — $200 for not-for-profits and $350 for for-profit entities — to be listed online and in print. These events begin June 16, and range from sports and recreation, such as baseball games, ski shows and the nationally known Fifth Season 8K, to concerts across genres, from brass bands and blues to the annual Voices of Hope patriotic concerts.

'The affiliated events make it so much bigger,' Neff said. 'We want everybody to be involved.'

The festival, which officially began in 1987, is designed to be primarily a free-for-all. A $5 festival button is good for admission to produced events and discounts to affiliated events. Children ages 8 and under do not need a button.

Active-duty military and veterans can pick up free buttons at the Festival Office, 609 First Ave. SW, or the Linn County Office of Veteran Affairs, 1240 26th Ave. Court SW.

'Our goal is for everybody to go,' Rieckhoff said.

As the festival approaches, she and Neff are pulling long hours, eventually running on just a couple hours of sleep, but 950 volunteers help share the load. Everyone on the 21-person festival board of directors works behind the scenes, at the scenes and attends the affiliated events. The community pitches in, as well.

'The neatest thing for me is seeing how the local companies and organizations all come together to make this possible,' Rieckhoff said.

People from local nursing homes and young adults with special needs have stuffed 40,000 packets with festival buttons and coupon books that offer $25 worth of goods and services from area businesses.

Volunteer groups from the sponsoring companies, as well as the general public, will participate in the Win-Win-Win program. They'll work three- to four-hour shifts at specific tasks, such as setup, teardown, beverage and button sales, earning $25 per person per shift to give to a charitable organization.

'That really brings the city together,' Rieckhoff said.

'We just try to include everyone. If we can include you in the festival, we're going to do it,' Neff added. 'We want people to be excited about it, just like we are. It's been going on for so long — almost my whole life — so I don't know a time when the Freedom Festival wasn't here.

'I think sometimes that can be a challenge,' she said, 'because when we are used to something, we take it for granted. Over time, it's just been a challenge for generations to say, 'This is a really cool thing we have,' and every city doesn't have it. ...

It becomes part of what you expect, and once it's an expectation, then it's not as special.'

New attractions are added each year to keep it fresh and fun, Rieckhoff said. Among those is the new Freedom Ride on June 26, beginning and ending at Marion's Lowe Park. Routes range from 3.3 miles to 25, 50 and 75 miles.

Freedom isn't free for the nearly three-week festival that draws 500,000 people. It's not financed by the city, so grants, sponsorships and button sales support the $800,000 budget.

In turn, the festival pumps at least $13.5 million into the local economy, Rieckhoff said. She expects a new study this year to show that figure on the rise.

If you go

What: Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival

Where: Metro area

When: June 16 to July 4

Highlights: Tribute to Heroes Dinner, 6 to 9 p.m. June 20, The Hotel at Kirkwood Center, $30; the Great Race, cross-country vintage car rally, stops in Cedar Rapids, 4 to 8 p.m. June 25, Third Avenue Bridge; Balloon Glow, 6 p.m. June 28, Brucemore lawn; Dock Dogs, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 1 to 3, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library; Freedom Festival Parade, 10 a.m. July 2, Czech Village/NewBo route; pancake breakfast, 8 to 11 a.m. July 4, Veterans Memorial Building, $3 to $6; fireworks, 4 to 10:30 p.m. July 4, downtown Cedar Rapids

Information: Freedomfestival.com