The 45th annual Hastings Rivertown Days took place last weekend featuring carnival rides, craft fairs, events across the community and live music with Saturday headliner the Spin Doctors. While the event has changed over the years, notably transforming post-pandemic into a full-blown music festival, Rivertown Days has long been an excuse for residents to get out into the community.
And that’s just what happened last weekend.
Thursday night Merchants Bank, Culvers and Subway held a community appreciation picnic on the grounds of the LeDuc Mansion. Hastings Public House and Hastings Golf Club (HGC) supported this picnic by providing parking and a trolley to shuttle folks back and forth between the locations.
Culvers served burgers, Subway had the chips and cookies, Merchants Bank had the water, Spiral Brewery had the beer, Alexis Bally Vineyards had the wine and G&G Petite Sweets offered up deep-fried brownies on a stick. There was a concert in the back yard and guests were able to explore the grounds of the historic site.
The picnic ran until 7 p.m. and the festivities moved to HGC where there was an antique fire truck water and light show. The light show looked amazing once the sun went down. The trucks pumped water from one of the ponds on the golf course and sprayed that water right back into it giving kids and adults a fun filled evening.
The music kicked off on Friday night with Nick Fox and the MetroGnomes at the Pavilion Stage with Friday headliner Good for Gary playing at Stage 61 at 8 p.m.
Events around the community included a wiffleball tournament, a pickleball tournament and a disc golf tournament. The disc golf tournament in particular was new this year, organized in part by local businessman Ryan Johnson. The 21-hole tournament took place at C. P. Adams Park, one of the few and best rated 21-hole disc golf courses in the state with over 60 participants.
“I just wanted to give something to the community,” said Johnson, with the hope that the new event will become a mainstay of Rivertown Days in years to come.
Other community events included the Saint John’s Dime Fair. The more than 20-year-old event originated as “something we could do to minister to families inexpensively,” said Geri Geiken, a volunteer at the event and longtime member of the church. Using games from the church’s winter carnival, the idea of a dime fair, or a fair with each event costing only a dime, was decided upon.
Blue-mouthed children carrying snow cones flitted from game to game while parents lined up to exchange bills for dimes. Volunteers picked up $800 worth of dimes that morning and furiously recycled them as they were received from games and set back into tills in order to make sure there were still dimes available for newcomers.
“It’s the longest day of the year and it's only eleven,” joked Roger Shuneson, as he and other volunteers repacked dimes in the church basement.
The event turned from simply an inexpensive community event to a fundraiser in 2007. According to Shuneson, since then the church has raised nearly $20,000 from their dime fairs for Hastings Family Service.
Just across the street from Saint John’s Lutheran Church, the sound of honking bus horns echoed through the intersection at the Premier Bank Petting Zoo. Alpaca, miniature horses, pigs, sheep and goats milled in the parking lot courtesy of the Haase family mobile petting zoo. The Hastings Bus Company had set up alongside the zoo letting children sit in the driver’s seat and honk the horn.
Just a few miles out of town on County Road 47, the Rich Valley RC Club had their visitor’s day. Members of the club brought many different style remote control airplanes to fly and show off to the guests. Kids were in awe at seeing airplanes flying up close and personal. The demonstrations showed both controlled, perfect flights and what the pilots need to do in an emergency. One of the planes had a landing gear malfunction. The pilot tried and tried to shake the wheel down but ultimately had to demonstrate a dead stick belly landing. For the record, it was perfectly executed and there was no damage done to the plane.
Downtown and at Jaycee Park, the city hosted an arts and crafts fair and creator’s market featuring local artisans, chocolatiers, jewelers, and even authors. Minnesota-native Frank F. Weber was one such member of the downtown craft fair. Weber is a forensic psychologist turned author. He fictionalizes Minnesota true crimes in his more than half dozen books, with the most recent book being based on the infamous murder of Carol Thompson in 1963.
The Lock and Dam 2 held an open house to the public, allowing community members a chance to wander over the walkways of the dam and watch barges pass through in real time. While many worried about how the high waters affected local dams after the failure of Rapidan Dam near Mankato, the Lock and Dam No. 2 was never in any harm, said Patrick Moes, Public Affairs Specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Initially the high waters were set to rise above the walkways of the dam, forcing the dam to close but they never reached that projected peak.
“Lock 2 came very close to closing,” said Moes.
The cascading waters that came through the dam during the open house, waters still falling from the heavy rains earlier this month, represented roughly 40,000 cubic feet of water passing through the dam each second. That figure represents less than half of the peak flow for the dam of 102,000 cubic feet of water per second, according to Moes.
At 8:30 Saturday night, to a packed 2nd Street, the Spin Doctors took the stage at Stage 61, their set including their 1990s hits Two Princes and Little Miss Can’t be Wrong.
Sunday, the gates were down around 2nd street allowing historic cars dating up to 1985 to take over the street while the Machinery Hill showcased their own heavy equipment beneath the Highway 61 bridge.
With the stages removed and downtown open to all, families were able to dig into all of the delicious fair food from the food trucks parked in the Levee Park lot. The free entrance day also gave guests the opportunity to shop in all of the wonderful downtown shops and thrill seekers were able to hop on their favorite carnival ride, all without needing the 20-dollar entrance ticket.
Finally, the annual YMCA Duck Race was scheduled to be held in the Vermillion River by the Dakota County shop along County Road 46. The threat of inclement weather forced organizers to make an early decision to move the event to the Hastings YMCA pool. The change forced some participants to come up with a different strategy since they would not have a river current to help them. Some residents have been practicing running ducks down the river in preparation for the event.
“We did some practice runs on the Vermillion River and we had a nice current, we had nice depth and I had a technique that I felt good about,” said Charlie Black, a Councilor at the Hastings Middle School.
All that changed when the event moved inside. At the Y, auxiliary events were held alongside the race including a raffle. The tickets gave you entry into a drawing if you picked the winner of the race. Each racer had their own beach bucket for their supporters to use and winners were drawn from the race champion’s bucket. There were other opportunities to play games as a fundraiser for the YMCA. One table had a “pick a duck” game with a variety of prizes available.
The pool deck was packed with fans cheering on their racers and the event went fairly quick. The racers rolled dice for the order of picking a lane and they were off. The race started very tame but quickly became fun and wholesome chaos. Ducks and racers floated every which way as people fought to stay on their duck and before the turnaround at the end of the pool, everyone had fallen off their duck at least once. By the time the race was over, Adam Elling took home the trophy.
With another successful Rivertown Days in the books, the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce and their crew of volunteers have a chance to catch their collective breaths before planning starts for 2025. This is the perfect time for new blood to step up and join the committee for Rivertown Days.
Many have expressed ideas via social media about additions and changes to the festival, and now is the time to start working on those ideas. Additional events take additional people to organize and run, so here is your chance. Stop by the chamber office and speak to the staff there on how to bring your ideas to life for Rivertown Days 2025.