Many in the community are praising the success of the inaugural Sundrop Dayz festival that was held last weekend in Shawano. The event was two years in the making and started as an idea of Leadership Shawano County.
Event planning committee leader Jeff Ballwahn says though they weren’t quite sure what to expect, but they’re pleased with the outcome.
“I don’t know what our expectation was because this was our first time, but we were extremely pleased with how the community supported us,” Ballwahn said. “I was very proud of the leadership class of ’16 and ’17 how they came together and just made this happen. A lot of hours were put into this.”
The event drew large crowds and entertained people of all age groups to support the city of Shawano and its nonprofit groups.
“We wanted to help local businesses, local nonprofits, but we also wanted to make sure that this was sustainable so we could continue to do it annually, but the nonprofits were by far the biggest focal point for us,” Ballwahn said of the event’s goal.
With the dust settled, there is good indication that the event will continue annually. Ballwahn says he’s heard mostly positive feedback regarding the event, but he did acknowledge they will take suggestions they’ve received into consideration when they begin to plan next year’s event.
“One comment I got is they wished there would be more children’s activities on Friday night, so that’s something we can take to the committee and talk about next year, but for the first time I think it was very well-received.”
Sundrop Dayz Crowd Behaved Perfect
While the totals have yet to be tallied in terms of money raised, the Shawano Police Department shared their final numbers and one stands out: the number zero. The police department did not log any incidents from the grounds.
“That crowd was fabulous,” said Shawano Interim Police Chief Dan Mauel. “I have policed a lot of big crowds through my years, including crowds at Lambeau Field for five years. When you mix that many people with alcohol and warm weather, you usually get trouble. We did not have any trouble. We had zero arrests, we did not escort anybody off the grounds because of misbehavior. It was just a fun crowd to police.”
Shawano Mayor Jeanne Cronce was also pleased with the results, and truly believes that Shawano has their well awaited signature event.
“So many people coming out to celebrate with each other and meet new friends and I noticed that a lot of people came from outside of Shawano,” Cronce noted. “Thank you so much to everyone that either participated, volunteered, were part of the community or just attend the event. We are looking forward to Sundrop Dayz number two.”