Kids Party in the Park will replace carnival at Riverside Days

There will be no carnival during 2016 Riverside Days but there will be an inflatable amusement park and games that will provide for a “Kids Party in the Park” Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25.

Rachelle Halvorson, Gretchen Horning and John Fank, volunteers with an interest in sustaining our community’s summer celebration, appeared before the Springfield City Council the evening of March 15 and outlined plans for the children’s entertainment and asked permission to place the inflatables in the park during Riverside Days.

“We haven’t had much luck with the carnival. We thought  this   was  a   better route to go,” said Fank, referring  to the bounce inflatables.   The group “took the bull by the horns,” so to speak, and looked for options to replace the carnival. They did considerable research and have contracted with Bounce Around Inflatables of Sioux Falls, S.D., to provide the popular inflatables for the Kids Party in the Park.  

There’ll be seven inflatables — Dog Bouncer, Castle 5 in 1, Sports Obstacle Course, Jungle Adventure, Bungee Run, Fly Wall, and Tropical Waterslide (can be wet or dry) — a mechanical bull, and 14 games, they reported.  

The Springfield Rotary Club voted recently to provide $1,500 “seed money” for the project that costs $6,300.