Charles City Party in the Park concludes summer of events

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Main Street Charles City set-up Central Park for the last party of the summer as this year’s series of Party in the Park events came to a conclusion.

“It was an unusual year,” said Community Development Director Mark Wicks. “We got through it.”

This year’s series of Friday night parties got off to a rough start with back-to-back postponements for the first two scheduled events due to early summer storms.

“It’s really a challenge when we have to reschedule because bands, food vendors and activity vendors are booked way ahead.”

As a result of the delayed start, the Main Street volunteers had a busy time in July, packing most of the summer’s schedule into a single month that also featured Independence Day celebrations and the Floyd County Fair.

After a whirlwind of July events, Party in the Park concluded with one last show on Friday, Aug. 2.

With live music from the Kris Karr Band, people came out for one last evening of food, music and games for the 2024 season.

“We had a great crowd,” said Wicks. “A little warm but otherwise good weather and everybody had a good time.”

Along with the usual attractions of pedal cars and train rides, the event also featured a basketball game from Farm Bureau, a water wall set up by the Fire Department and a special Olympics-themed contest where kids were able to compete in a series of events to win medals of their own.

“The kids really enjoyed that,” said Wicks.

Meanwhile, the Charles City classes of both 1964 and 1974 were set up in the park, taking the opportunity to enjoy their 60- and 50-year class reunions.

Wicks credits the overall success of this year’s events to Main Street’s Party in the Park Committee, or “the PIPsters.” Consisting of Krista Noah, Arcon Concepcion, Suzie Ross, Mike Bauer and Betsy Schmidt, the group worked hard over the summer to organize the event and adapt to disruptions in the schedule, he said.

“We had a great volunteer committee that really stepped up,” said Wicks.

Wicks also had praise for honorary PIPsters Barry Levey and Pat Holerking, who he said also went above and beyond to help keep things running smoothly through the summer.

“They were tremendous volunteers throughout the season,” said Wicks.

With the summer season over, Main Street Charles City’s next big event will be its annual Spookwalk, coming up in October.

In the meantime, it won’t be long before the PIPsters start meeting again to prepare for next summer’s series of Friday night festivities, coming up with new ideas to improve on the party.

“If anybody is interested in being on the committee, we’d love to have them,” said Wicks. “We welcome public ideas and input.”