"How was that Mumford and Sons (Gentlemen of the Road) festival in Waverly?"

Waverly Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Travis Toliver says the Gentlemen of the Road festival, headlined by Mumford and Sons, was an amazing experience.  Toliver's office coordinated the event with city and Wartburg College officials.  He says the promotion company for Gentlemen of the Road was great and very sensitive to the needs of the community.  Toliver estimated the economic impact of the event to be $7 to $7.5 million.

Toliver said that less than 100 festival staff used Wartburg College for housing needs. That doesn't mean Wartburg got off easy. Besides hosting the festival site on their athletic/recreation fields, they were the evacuation site for the festival campground. Toliver thought about 80 percent of the campers voluntarily shuffled to the Wartburg Wellness Center early Saturday morning as the rain/wind/hail storm rolled into Waverly. Toliver said the evacuation was smooth and the Wellness Center atmosphere was subdued, with most people sitting around using electronic devices or sleeping.

Toliver said there were a few "nay sayers" from the business community as the event planning began, but thought most had come around by the time things got going, as the welcome signs and flags welcomed  Mumford and others to Waverly. Toliver said his role was to talk with those concerned about "working for the greater good."

Reports by the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier suggested that the festival drew about 15,000 –18,000 attendees to the main festival grounds on the athletic/recreation fields of the Wartburg College campus.  The newspaper noted the hospitality of the Waverly community.  Both Mumford and Sons and the fest attendees echoed those comments.

The Courier article reports that the Waverly police experienced a quiet event, with only a few misdemeanor arrests toward the end of the festival. They quoted Police Chief Richard Pursell regarding the crowd: "They felt like they were guests to the city, and they acted accordingly."  Besides the festival grounds on the Wartburg campus, blocks of downtown were blocked off for additional entertainment.  The Courier agreed with Mayor Charles Infelt that for a few days Waverly had become a "destination town."

But enough of the "second hand coverage" – I was there, with my wife and friends. Their good judgment led us to stay at Bremer County's Cedar Bend Campground, only a mile from the festival. We avoided the crowded conditions of the festival campground, that eventually became a mud city during the evacuation on Saturday morning during the rain/wind/hail storm. The soft festival parking ground (a recently cut grain field) became a seriously muddy mess, but a second round of good judgment led us downtown the second day to find parking on the Waverly streets.  Beyond what we avoided at the festival campground, I have to say that the facility at Cedar Bend was wonderful and the hospitality from staff and hosts was beyond exceptional.

We saw lots of Decorah people there, and the total consensus was that the festival and music was great.  Several had taken precautions to avoid the hassles of the festival campground and dodged the storm.  Some got caught in the mess but eventually got back in the party spirit.  And the party spirit of the festival attendees, at least from what we experienced, was sane, sociable and very friendly.  Mumford and the organizers worked hard to promote the festival as just that kind of  small town event.  Granted, an eight dollar beer keeps some people a bit more on track!

Were there problems? Sure. The mud and the potentially dangerous storm were hassles for some, but thankfully things worked out without major incident.  I imagine the Wartburg Wellness Center clean-up after the evacuation was a bit of a challenge, but that is what they signed up for.

We did what the Waverly community wanted--we spent money in restaurants, bars, stores, and convenience stores – and experienced a friendly and hospitable community.  And we had a good time. We saw some of the beautiful natural surroundings of Waverly. These were things mostly overlooked in previous years when, as parents of sports involved children, we did the inevitable "fly through town for an athletic event" behavior. There is a lot more there than I thought, the hospitality was great, and the bottom line is that I would go back to Waverly.