Unprecedented attendance, the promise of another generous commitment by Boyd Gaming Corp. and a crowd that was willing to exercise patience when it was time to leave put a fitting cap on Riverfest 1994.

So proclaimed Riverfest President Peggy Barringer, who said she was willing to trade lack of sleep for the knowledge that her work and the perseverance displayed by hundreds of volunteers was not wasted.

"I was looking at the hill on Saturday night when Martina McBride was on the main stage, and then I looked back down by the riverfront," said Barringer. "I had to guess how many were there, I'd say 50,000 to 60,000. For the two days, I'm guessing we drew as many as 75,000."

Boyd sponsored McBride's headlining act on Saturday night, a gesture that called for an $8,000 check. "Dan Davis, who came up from Mississippi to watch Riverfest said he was very impressed with the kind of crowds we were able to attract," she said. "As far as I know, the Boyd people are willing to come up with the same kind of sponsorship next year," she said.

Barringer feared there would be some difficulty dispersing such a large volume of people. But those fears were laid to rest as soon as the fireworks display was over.

"I was so happy and proud of the way the crowd handled itself," said Barringer. "They showed a lot of patience, politeness and consideration. The people of Cape Girardeau and surrounding areas just took their time and made a difficult situation very easy to handle. It was one of the most impressive things I saw during Riverfest. They just made it work."

Volunteers made the cleanup task work well in the early hours of Sunday morning. "They were downtown at 6 a.m. to clean the place up," said Barringer, who planned to bestow a few gag gifts and some distinguished plaques to the volunteers and Riverfest board members later Sunday evening.

A mid-afternoon shower put a temporary damper on Riverfest activities Saturday. But Port Cape Girardeau owner Doc Cain found a solution at a time when Miss Riverfest and Little Miss Riverfest candidates were losing their competitive edge.

"Doc Cain let us bring the contest to his place in the Yacht Club and it really made things a lot more pleasant under trying circumstances," said Barringer. "That kind of generosity seemed to be working throughout the Riverfest."

The brief shower forced the fireworks display, which was scheduled for 9 p.m., to light up the sky over the Mississippi at 11:45. "The fireworks people needed so many hours to set up," said Barringer. "There are no shortcuts when it comes to something like that.

"We could have shot the fireworks off as early as 10:30, but that would have delayed the Martina McBride concert, so we decided to let the entertainment on the main stage go first."

From the time the Riverfest opened at 3 p.m. Friday until the close on Saturday night, there was plenty of opportunity to be entertained and take in arts, crafts and carnival rides.

"Even with the rain storm on Saturday, I was impressed how smoothly everything went," Barringer said. "It took a lot of people committed to make this work to pull that off."

Asked if Riverfest '94 taught her anything, Barringer replied, "Probably that when you spend the money for quality entertainment, people will come. This year we were really committed to bring in high quality entertainment," she said. "Just from some of the crafts people, vendors and carnival workers I saw, a lot of happy faces left here Saturday night."

Barringer said continued interest in development in the downtown area likely helped numbers swell during Riverfest '94. "It seems like there has been a lot of attention paid to the downtown area and that could only help our cause," she said.