I’ve been hearing more negative comments about the recent Chinese Lantern & Folk Festival than good ones.

And this has raised the question once again about holding special events in the community at all.

There are comments being made that I would like to put my two cents worth into the discussion.

There was a statement that “holding these public events is not why a person chooses to live here.” It was said Fountain Hills is home, a place to live, but not a place to hold “tawdry events” and close the park to residents.

The first special event ever held here was the Arizona Chili Cookoff back in 1972. McCulloch Oil President C.V. Wood, the guy who master-planned Fountain Hills, was the reigning world champion chili cook at the time.

He decided to hold the cookoff, not to have another potential competitor for his title, but to bring people out from the Valley. It was his thought that having a special event where people would have a good time, see Fountain Hills as a special place to buy a home and come back another day to do so.

They did, too.

From the success of that day, McCulloch began the series of concerts in the park. There was Les Brown and his Band of Renown, the Count Basie Orchestra with a surprise appearance by Ella Fitzgerald. Then the Phoenix Symphony concerts began featuring a variety of special guest conductors. Among them were Henry Mancini, Arthur Fiedler, John Green and Andre Kostelanetz with a special guest appearance by Walter Cronkite, who did Lincoln reading while the symphony played patriotic music in the background.

A non-park event in early 1975 was the opening of the Fountain Hills Swim and Racquet Club. Grandstand seating was brought in and a large crowd watched Hollywood celebrities play tennis. The star of the day was Bobby Riggs, who had just lost to Billie Jean King in his “Battle of the Sexes” match.

Valley PBS Channel 8 started doing a special event called 8’s Great Sunday in the park as a thank you for viewers and contributors.

That event evolved into the Great Fair and continues to be held each year at the end of February.

The Fountain Hills Jaycees, with McCulloch paying for the fireworks, started a July 4th celebration at Fountain Park. The biggest Independence Day celebration was in 1989 when 150,000 people gathered for a park concert featuring The Gatlin Brothers, Highway 101 and our own Jeff Dayton Band.

The community’s 10th anniversary celebration in 1980 had 17 days of activities in the park. It was capped off by the White Castle hamburger event that brought international attention to Fountain Hills.

A small art show in the park became the Fountain Festival of Arts and Crafts, annually attracting over 200,000 people to the three-day event each November.

The annual St. Patrick’s Day and Oktoberfest celebrations are two other park special events.

Special events are very much a part of our community’s heritage.

We don’t have a very big business park. And actually, the downtown area is limited in the amount of land available for a major employer.

It’s been proven that these special events generate economic activity. The visitors bring a lot of needed income to the restaurants. Other shops benefit as well. For some reason, town residents don’t support the local businesses as much as they should.

As long as that is the case, we need these special events.

The Chinese Lantern & Folk Festival certainly needs to take a look at itself and make some improvements.

Better entertainment would be a start. Perhaps more exhibits about the Chinese culture would help. Costumed characters could mingle with the crowd. I think it could be a good event that could get the numbers of people that they were anticipating.