All Abuzz About Riverfest

Susan Burchill puts a new face on a 36-year tradition.

During her first Riverfest, Susan Burchill lost 18 pounds in three weeks. That’s how much she was moving. As director of marketing and PR for Wichita Festivals, Susan was constantly escorting media, helping with events, answering her cell and handing out buttons. The only time she stopped to enjoy the results of her year-long endeavor was the festival’s finale, the fireworks spectacular.

This year’s festival, May 11–19, will be just as hectic. Already Susan has orchestrated the marketing campaign, helped plan the festival’s dozens of events, created the thick festival guide and trained Admiral Windwagon Smith and the Schoonermates for public appearances. Along the way, she’s also managed to write press releases, schedule advertising spots and sit through an endless string of daily meetings. It’s a year-long cycle that will start over after Riverfest’s final days and Flight Festival. Through it all, she remembers her greatest responsibility of all—helping shape the public’s opinion about Wichita’s festivals.

“I want to show the festivals have really improved over the years,” she says. “Changing this perception that the festivals are always the same every year, that’s the biggest challenge of my job.” The 30-year-old new mother, who considers her idea of liberation not having a diaper bag on one arm, sits at Larkspur Restaurant for lunch and talks about her experiences with the long-time Wichita tradition.

Admittedly, Susan never went to River Festival before joining Wichita Festivals in August 2004. A native of Cavalier, N.D., she attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and graduated with a bachelor’s of advertising. After graduation, she moved to Wichita with her husband, Jeremy, in 2000. During the next five years, she worked at several jobs—first, advertising firm Craghead & Harrold, and then Youthville, a nonprofit that aids foster kids. Although the work at Youthville was rewarding, Susan wanted to find a job that was “lighter on my heart.” When she saw an ad in the paper for Wichita Festivals, she applied. To her delight, she landed the job as director of communications in 2004. The next summer, she attended her first Riverfest.

Now approaching her third festival, Susan regrets not being able to attend the festival on her own time. “It’s kind of sad that I might never see it from the other side,” she says. “But it gives me a different perspective, and it causes me to question things much more.”

Take the poster artwork contest, for instance. During her first year at Wichita Festivals, Susan followed the traditional route for finding art and received only 21 entries. Although she liked the idea of the art community’s participation, she decided not to rest the entire marketing campaign on the hope that someone turns in a great design. So she chose a design team for last year’s festival and shortened the name to Riverfest.

This year, she took it one step further. Susan hired Associated Advertising to put together the advertising campaign. The result was the V Formation Band, the animated, winged rock band consisting of Drake, Titus and Gaven. Susan says characters are more popular with kids, and they offers variety for the festival’s required $5 buttons (though only one is necessary for nine days of unlimited entertainment).

That’s not the only change. Susan also pushes to keep the festival’s lineup fresh. This year’s big name acts include former “American Idol” contestant Chris Daughtry and the legendary Chubby Checker. Of course, there are 10 other Wichita Festivals employees and hundreds of volunteers, so Susan is only a small part of Riverfest. But she believes in progress.

“If you’re not changing, you’re dying,” she says. “I want to make sure people are coming to Riverfest for the next 30 years.”