In 1980, as one of the strategies to attract people downtown, Swiss organized and held many activities and events in the downtown area including antique car shows, 4th of July festivities, reenactments, Easter Egg Hunts, Flag Day Ceremonies and the Swiss Bear Festival. The Swiss Bear Festival was held on several blocks of Middle Street. Vacant buildings (Belk and Kress) were used for some of the activities such as elementary school art work displays, quilt displays etc. In 1983, the committee invited Tryon Palace to participate as a featured attraction with the fall gardens being opened free to the public. Since the fall gardens displayed thousands of mums, the festival was promoted as the Swiss Bear Chrysanthemum Festival. The gardens were a huge hit. In 1984, the decision was made to drop Swiss Bear from the name and call it the Chrysanthemum Festival. The name remained until the early 1990’s. As the revitalization effort was moving forward, the festival grew in size, expanding to take in two blocks of Pollock, two blocks of South Front and vacant property on those streets. We continued to hear people commenting they had trouble pronouncing the name, spelling it and men were reluctant to attend as they thought it was primarily a flower show. Even though posters and other promotional material still carried the name Chrysanthemum Festival, it was referred to more and more, simply as the MUMfest. By the mid-1990’s, that name was adopted and the festival is officially known as MUMfest.
As the festival attendance continued to grow, there were serious concerns for the safety of festival-goers due to the intense density. The completion of the new Neuse River Bridge and removal of the old bridge from the foot of Broad Street, led to the City’s request to NC DOT for permission to close Broad from Hancock Street and East Front from Broad to the Cunningham Bridge for the two day event. With their approval, the festival midway area was moved to Broad, East Front and Union Point in 2000.
What began as a modest one day, two-block event is now widely recognized as one of the finest award-winning festivals in the state. It attracts more than 80,000 festival-goers to our historic downtown and waterfront. MUMfest is a city sponsored event produced by Swiss Bear in cooperation with area businesses and nonprofits. This partnership made it possible to expand the festival throughout downtown and along the waterfront. Sponsorships, concession and vendor fees fund the festival. Festival proceeds are used to assist Swiss Bear with downtown revitalization projects.
Swiss Bear greatly appreciates all the support extended by the City, area businesses, volunteers and the community-at-large whose participation make MUMfest possible.
Susan Moffat Thomas
Executive Director
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