The Wright City Area Chamber of Commerce is considering changes to how and when it hosts its largest community festival each year, according to Chamber President Kim Arbuthnot.The Wright City Chamber is the organizer of the annual Strassenbash Festival. The parade and activities of Strassenbash have long been a favorite fall event for the community, but Arbuthnot said recent changes in the area are pushing the Chamber to rethink its plans for future festivities.Starting in 2020, the Chamber is forming plans to host a large community festival in the spring or early summer, Arbuthnot said. The festival would have vendors, activities and live music from local bands, like Strassenbash does now. And if it can be arranged, organizers hope to have carnival rides at the festival, similar to what the Chamber hosted this year as a separate event, Arbuthnot said.She explained there are several goals for the changes, including bringing the festival for the community closer to its roots and making it less about things like a big feature band. Organizers also want to make sure there are plenty of activities for children, something Arbuthnot said community members have asked for.“We’re very energized and excited for the possibilities with a spring event,” she commented. Arbuthnot said the Chamber has wanted to combine a carnival with its annual festival, but that it’s immensely difficult to book a carnival company in the fall.Arbuthnot added that the Chamber would still host a fall event, likely focused on the car show that has been part of Strassenbash. At the moment, that fall event also is planned to keep the Strassenbash name, with a spring festival and carnival receiving its own identity.The Wright City Lions Club would continue to host the festivities because of its space and the solid surface it provides for carnival rides.Chamber organizers were pushed to consider a new festival date after a disappointing turnout for Strassenbash this year. Arbuthnot identified the cause as overlapping events that split vendors and other circumstances that kept a few away.The well-attended Pyromania fireworks show hosted by the nearby Cedar Lake Cellars winery fell on the same weekend as Strassenbash this year. Some food vendors chose to set up at that event, leaving less to draw visitors to Strassenbash, Arbuthnot said. She added that the organizers of Pyromania have already confirmed having the event that same weekend for future years.The Wright City Parks Department has also started up its own fall festival to be held in Diekroeger Park each year, another potential overlap.“We’re targeting the same audience for sponsors and vendors. It’s not fair to either festival,” Arbuthnot said.On top of those issues, Arbuthnot observed that it seemed like anything else that could have gone wrong with vendors did go wrong, including fear of bad weather and lack of staff available for Strassenbash.But there were two segments of the yearly festival that went well for organizers. The annual Strassenbash Parade was well attended, and displayed the enthusiasm of community groups and businesses that spent time on floats and parade costumes.The Chamber also had success with its conversion of the Strassenbash Queen contest into the Wright City Ambassador contest, Arbuthnot said. The revamped contest focuses more on community engagement and growing its participants as professionals, and is open to boys as well as girls. Organizers plan to continue the contest and recruit male participants in 2020, Arbuthnot said.She went on to explain that all the plans for next year’s changes are in their earliest stage. Beside certain planning that has to be done far ahead of time, organizers won’t begin discussions in earnest until January 2020.MTV strass parade 3 092619.JPG