As Melody Brunsting put it: “My feet are finally warm.”
It was a cold, rainy weekend for the usually indoor and outdoor Temecula Bluegrass Festival, an approximately $30,000 event sponsored by the city.
But weather conditions forced the event indoors and affected attendance, said Brunsting, who organizes and promotes the event on behalf of the city.
“It’s hard to say,” Brunsting said of an approximate attendance number. “Everything being indoors with the way it was, I have no idea.”
Sunday attendance was down, she said, which is typical if there’s a rain-out the day before.
But both Old Town Temecula Community Theater, a location for both ticketed and free concerts, and GrandDadz Hot Dogs, who stepped in to help in case of rain, saw fairly good attendance.
Friday’s ticketed concert at the theater sold out. Free concerts at the theater throughout the day on Saturday averaged between 200 and 300 people. Saturday’s ticketed concert featuring Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands saw a half-full auditorium. And the final concert at the theater on Sunday was almost a packed house.
“The average bluegrass fan is very loyal,” Brunsting said. “They’ll hang in there till the very last act.”
She said attendees did miss the street corner jamming this year.
She anticipates that the event will return in 2013 with hopefully better weather. In 12 years of organizing and promoting the event, Brunsting has only had two rain-outs.
“So it’s not really bad odds,” she said.
Email rachael.recker@swrnn.com or follow her on Twitter
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