Photo: A glimpse of the crowd in attendance for River Jam Saturday, June 1, from the Paris-Henry County Economic Development.
By Shannon McFarlin, News Director
Paris, Tenn.–If you thought there were a LOT of people in downtown Paris for the Tennessee River Jam, you sure were right. But another important milestone was reached for the annual event, too.
City Manager Kim Foster said at Thursday night’s meeting of the Paris City Commission, “To say that Tennessee River Jam was a success was an understatement. This is the first time it’s been profitable”.
According to analytical data compiled by Administrative Assistant Jessica Crouch, there were over 6,000 people in downtown Paris for the day-long River Jam festivities on June 1 and our visitors came from six different states (Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Texas, Missouri and Mississippi.) Last year’s total was some 5,000 people in attendance.
Indeed, there were thousands of people in Paris over the Memorial Day long weekend, too.
Over the May 24-27 weekend, over 12,000 people came to Paris over the weekend, with over 1,000 coming more than once. In all, there were nine states represented–Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Mississipi, and Georgia).
On Friday, May 31, for the appearance by Almost Famous at Eiffel Tower Park, there were over 3,300 people at the park, representing nine states–Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Foster said, “No incidents were reported, we had a great crowd. We had a lot of blue presence for all the events. I only heard positive things about the whole event.”
The Paris-Henry County Chamber for the first time “made a little money” from the event, “and by 7 a.m. Monday morning, you couldn’t even tell anything had gone on downtown”, thanking the volunteers and city crews for their cleanup efforts.