ELEVEN YOUNG WOMEN IN QUEST FOR NEXT MISS RIVERFEST CROWN

It takes more than just a pretty face to win a beauty pageant, especially one the size of Miss Riverfest.

The festival will be held Friday and Saturday in downtown Cape Girardeau.

April McIntosh, 17, of Campbell knows that better than any of this year's contestants for the crown. This is McIntosh's third year in Miss Riverfest, and she's hoping that experience is going to pull her through.

After finishing as the fourth alternate in 1994, and the first alternate last year, the Campbell High School senior knows what to expect during the roughest parts of the competition -- the interviews.

"I was so inexperienced back then," McIntosh said of her first year in the pageant. "I was the youngest one and everyone else was a lot older. Now I'm probably the most experienced one so I'm not nearly as nervous as I was."

McIntosh said she doesn't get nervous in front of the hundreds of people who gather at the Riverfest pageant. In fact, her poise in those situations is her strength, she says. But the interview, when any question can be posed and the pressure is on for the best answer in the shortest time, is when she gets flustered.

"The interview is really the hardest part about it," she said. "They'll sometimes just ask you some off-the-wall question to see how you handle them and to find out things about you.

"Some questions they'll want your opinion about something. And some are like, 'If you were a cookie what type of cookie would you be?' Or sometimes they'll ask, 'If you were a raindrop, and you could fall anywhere in the world, where would you fall?'

"I'd rather they ask me questions that I can have an opinion on."

Knowing how difficult the process can be and what it will take to win doesn't discourage McIntosh from trying. She has been happy with her showings in the last two Miss Riverfests, and whatever the outcome of this year's event she'll view it as an experience she can use in future pageants and possibly if she studies drama after high school.

"I hope to do really well this year," McIntosh said. "I know I have as good a chance as anyone does. But this will just give me more experience -- being up on stage, interviewing and everything will help me a bunch in acting."

While McIntosh can anticipate the rigors of this year's pageant, and feel confident because of her experience, Tracy Gibbar, 17, of Cape Girardeau feels the same confidence -- just for different reasons.

Gibbar, a recent graduate of Central High School, chose Miss Riverfest to be her first beauty pageant. And even though she is no stranger to the pressures of being on stage, having been a gymnast, actor and dancer, Gibbar admitted she has little idea how demanding a major beauty pageant can be.

"I've never done anything like this, but I thought it would be fun," Gibbar said. "I've never done an interview except a job interview."

That lack of experience hasn't shaken Gibbar's confidence though.

"I'm pretty comfortable speaking for myself," she said. "I think they're going to do an on-stage interview and I think that's the part I'm most nervous about."

Describing herself as a small-town girl, Gibbar said she's comfortable competing against the other 10 girls in the contest and thinks she has a chance to win.

"I feel equal to everyone," she said. "I think we all have a fair chance to win. We all come from the same area. It's not like competing with people from St. Louis, which I wouldn't be comfortable with because I'm a small-town girl. This is where I've always lived."

Gibbar also said she doesn't worry too much about having chosen one of the biggest pageants in the area as her inaugural event.

"I hope to have a lot of fun," she said. "I'm not really worried about winning, I entered it to have fun and to meet new people. If you ask anyone who knows me, this is not my personality to enter something like this."

She doesn't expect to be disappointed if she loses. "I'll be glad that I experienced this and had the chance to do something like this," she said.

"So if I ever want to do it again, I'll know what I'm getting into."