Riverbank council approves downtown music festival, pauses annual Founders Day carnival

The Riverbank City Council voted 5-0 to forego the Parks and Recreation Department’s traditional Founders Day carnival and instead partner with a private promoter and the Somar Youth Project to hold a music festival downtown on the same day as Love Riverbank.

Michael Patton, Riverbank’s parks and recreation director, told the council the promoter has produced regional music events and proposed a downtown layout with a stage on Third Street, a car show on the adjacent block and a designated health fair and kid’s corner area. Patton said the promoter will recruit vendors, bands and sponsors; the city would provide staffing for road closures, part-time event support and potentially fill gaps for the family-focused activities.

“Staff is recommending we partner with the promoter and forego the community-center carnival this year,” Patton said, noting the city budgeted $15,000 for the carnival and staff proposes reallocating a portion of those resources. Councilmember Pimentel moved to approve the partnership and to set a family-program budget cap of up to $10,000; the motion passed 5-0.

Public commenters included residents who urged more outreach and details about the change, and others, including Chamber of Commerce representatives, who supported testing a larger downtown event and said Parks and Recreation and downtown businesses should be engaged early. One resident asked staff to ensure a robust kid’s corner remains; Patton said Parks and Recreation will step in if the promoter’s family programming is insufficient.

The council asked staff to finalize event details with the promoter, ensure downtown businesses receive advance notice, coordinate security with the sheriff’s department and return any required permits and road-closure requests to council for approval as needed.