Hyde Park Festival Recap

The Hyde Park Festival, which took place on September 10 and 11, was a success. It certainly was a challenge. We had some bumpy months leading up to the festival, with things changing pretty frequently. We had bands cancel last minute, and volunteers fail to show up. But we managed to fill all the gaps.

The games that Jake's on Main (from St. Charles, MO) loaned us were a huge hit. The kids packed them all day both days. The face painting also had a long line throughout the festival. We also raffled off Life is Good t-shirts every hour of the festival.

Tim and Christy Sawyer, potters from St. Charles, set up a spinning wheel and taught kids how to throw pottery. A local artist painted a watercolor in the park on Sunday.

The police flew their helicopter in and hung out for a while, describing the different parts of the helicopter to the kids. The fire department pulled the truck out and let kids climb around. Our historic walking tour took about 5 groups to different historic sites in the neighborhood, including the Bremen Theater.

A few stomp groups opened the festival, and Andre Williams closed Saturday's entertainment with a 2 hour long jazz/soul set. Our own band of missionaries, Reformation Sound, performed on Sunday. There were several local rap groups, a rock band, and a group of 3 young girls who performed some impressive tap dancing.

We are already planning for next year. It will be Saturday, September 8. We are getting entertainment lined up. We hope to have more vendors, more promotion, and hopefully more help. If you'd like to get involved, let us know! Contact our executive director, Dr. Terry Goodwin, at terry@sunministries.org.