40th Riverfest but not 40th Admiral

To celebrate Wichita's 100th birthday, an event called the Wichitennial River Festival in 1970 was organized, which was part of a year-long celebration for Wichita's 100th birthday, and was only a weekend long. Organizers wanted all segments of the community to participate in this day-long spree of events. The celebration was free to the public and featured down-home, all-American, non sophisticated activities drawing citizens from every corner of the community. Some of the events were a Sing Out Salute for the Centennial followed by a Kids' Bike Parade, beginning at Kansas Gas & Electric's reflecting pond and ending at Cowtown where a Country Fair, Centennial Carnival, Sidewalk Cafe and Art Exhibit were held.

The First Wichitennial River Festival began with a smoking of the peace pipe by Mayor Enoch (Wichita) and Mayor Secretain of Orleans, France. Most of the events were free to the public and the total budget for the 1970 festival was $9,717 and included in-kind contributions from the Wichita Art Museum, Cowtown and others. The response from the Community was overwhelming with approximately 2,000 event goers. Now Riverfest has almost 300,000 event goers.

Because the Wichitennial River Festival was so popular, community leaders decided to make the Wichitennial River Festival a yearly event and formed a non-profit, Wichita Festivals, Inc. to organize it beginning in 1972. After the centennial, the even was named what we know it today as the Wichita River Festival "Riverfest."

Because of increasing popularity of the Wichita River Festival, a mascot for the Festival, Admiral Windwagon Smith, was created in 1974. An Admiral has been named every year since. Surprisingly the Admiral is normally male; however, in 1999 Riverfest got its first female admiral, Linda Davidson, to represent the Wichita River Festival.