I would say Riverfest was a success in bringing people downtown. The irony is the poor planning on having food vendors ironically paid off for DT restaurants. Almost every restaurant on Phillips was full or on a wait. Maybe organizers did that on purpose so that fest goers would dine at DT eateries. Either way, it paid off.
The other irony of it was everyone had to leave the river front to get a bite to eat (unless you ate at Falls Landing or Wild Sage).
So Riverfest brought people to the river, then pushed them to the main drag and attraction of DT, Phillips Avenue, not the Sioux River.
I’m just saying.