Hundreds attend Renton Spring Festival

The Renton Spring Festival ended with a bang. That is a bang of lightning and a cloud burst of rain. “It was a banging success,” said organizer Linda Middlebrooks. A steady stream of about 2,500 visitors came the downtown Piazza Park to see about 60 booths in all.

By Celeste Gracey • April 22, 2010 1:52 pm
Norman and Regan Wong and the “Wacky Crayons” booth were selling hand-crafted crayon that puts a unique twist on the traditional crayon at the Spring Festival at Renton Piazza Saturday.
Norman and Regan Wong and the “Wacky Crayons” booth were selling hand-crafted crayon that puts a unique twist on the traditional crayon at the Spring Festival at Renton Piazza Saturday.

The Renton Spring Festival ended with a bang. That is a bang of lightning and a cloud burst of rain.

“It was a banging success,” said organizer Linda Middlebrooks.

A steady stream of about 2,500 visitors came the downtown Piazza Park to see about 60 booths in all.

While vendors offered a variety of displays, crafters dominated the event. There were about five booths for items related to dogs, she said.

About 140 people participated in the Poker Run, which encourages participants to visit downtown stores with the lure of prizes.

The rain started at about 5 p.m., when the event was scheduled to end, she said.

A volunteer lifted a leg of a tent to begin putting it away. Middlebrooks was standing on the opposite side, and all the water caught in the roof came pouring down, she said. “I got baptized, it was funny.”

Vendors were so pleased with the festival, one even handed in an application for a similar fall event.

“The bottom line for me is if the vendors are happy,” Middlebrooks said. “If they don’t do well, why would they ever come back? And a lot of them have already said they’re going to come back.”