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WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – WECT previously reported that Wilmington Riverfest’s board voted to cancel the 2026 festival. Now, emails and records WECT obtained show what led to that decision: a months-long standoff with the City of Wilmington over where to hold the festival.
Riverfest dates to 1979 and has been held on Front Street for several years, after construction previously forced it off its original Water Street location. This year, construction on Front Street from Red Cross to Hanover Streets made the festival’s usual stretch unusable, setting off a months-long search for a new footprint that ultimately came down to safety concerns, a missed deadline, and a late approval that organizers say left them with no time to pull off the event.
Riverfest applied in April for an Oct. 3-4, 2026 festival, with setup on Oct. 2, according to the group’s special event permit application. The application estimated 40,000 attendees and requested closures of Front Street between Dock and Walnut streets. It also called for a band stage, a Kid Zone, roughly 18 food vendors and about 110 arts-and-crafts vendors, along with 40 regular portable restrooms, four ADA-compliant units, alcohol sales, live music and two dozen road barricades.
By August, the city had rejected that plan. Festival President Roderick Bell proposed moving the event to a shortened stretch of Front Street from Princess to Red Cross streets, but the city rejected that suggestion, too, and instead directed the festival to a parking lot near City Hall and Cape Fear Community College’s campus.
Laura Brogdon-Primavera, director of Downtown Services and Special Events, told Bell that police and fire officials determined the original setup, bleachers and an immovable stage on Front Street, would restrict access around vulnerable buildings.
“There will be no scenario where this will be allowed to occur due to public safety, emergency access, and egress,” Brogdon-Primavera wrote.
The city’s proposal evolved over the summer to include Riverfront Park, the South Lot, and additional nearby space after Riverfest lost access to the Cape Fear Community College lot because of a scheduling conflict with another event. City officials said the alternative could still accommodate the car show, street vendors, BMX demonstrations, Kid Zone, and entertainment that organizers wanted.
Bell made his concerns public in mid-August, telling WECT the proposed parking-lot site raised accessibility issues, including having only one entrance and exit. “We just have major concerns about the safety of this area,” Bell said then. “We have major concerns about the logistics.”
In August, the city told WECT it was “generally… looking for ways to activate northern downtown and bring visitors and residents to an area the City is focused on strengthening,” and that staff believed the new location would provide a safer space for festival-goers while activating an underused part of downtown.
Bell, however, said he believed the push to relocate had less to do with activating northern downtown and more to do with complaints from local business owners who felt the festival diverted pedestrian traffic from their storefronts. He said at the time that he’d already heard from a few sponsors who might not want to participate if the festival moved to the parking lot, concerns he later repeated directly to city staff in emails, telling them sponsors and vendors were threatening to pull out and seek refunds if placed in a parking lot.
He also raised concerns in emails about closing the Harnett Street and Nutt Street intersection, saying previous festival crossings at Front and Market streets and Front and Princess streets had been “a challenge and not safe.” City officials responded that the Harnett intersection needed to stay open for access to Pier 33, Marina Grill and nearby apartments, and said their proposed footprint carried less vehicle traffic than the intersections Riverfest cited. Staff said they would explore pedestrian-crossing safety options as a compromise.
The layout dispute wasn’t new. In May, a Change.org petition signed by 107 people asked city leaders and festival organizers to reconsider using Front Street for the Azalea Festival and Riverfest street fair, citing impacts on downtown businesses, street access, vendor placement and public safety.
City Councilmember David Joyner asked staff whether the petition’s concerns matched what they were hearing from the community, and city staff discussed trying to determine how many festival vendors were local businesses versus outside vendors.
City officials also pointed to a 2016 North Waterfront Park master-plan document showing that downtown Wilmington streets were closed 72 times during fiscal year 2013 to accommodate special events. The plan described a dedicated event space as “a more sustainable approach” than repeated street closures.
The city had asked Riverfest to submit any alternative layout proposal by Aug. 21. City staff said they never received a revised plan by that deadline.
Bell maintained he submitted a new layout that removed the street stage and pointed back to the original April application.
On Aug. 31, with the deadline already passed, city staff agreed to conditionally approve a scaled-down version of Riverfest’s Front Street plan, covering the stretch from Red Cross Street to Princess Street. The approval came with a list of conditions: updated maps, a revised application, a vendor list, an emergency action plan, a waste and recycling plan and a traffic control plan, all due by Sept. 2.
A separate email that same day from Brogdon-Primavera framed the decision more starkly, telling Bell the city considered Riverfest approved only under the city’s original Northern Riverfront proposal, and asking organizers to say whether they would move forward under that footprint or skip the festival in 2026.
On Sept. 2, the same day the conditional approval requirements were due, Bell told the city that Riverfest’s board voted unanimously to cancel the 2026 festival, citing “untenable venue logistics and public safety constraints imposed by recent municipal decisions.”
The newly obtained emails show Bell attributing the cancellation to the months-long approval process itself. He said the organization spent from April through August trying to secure an approved layout, and that by the time the city granted approval, Riverfest was already behind on preparations. Bell said the group has historically needed a confirmed layout by July 1 to organize the festival effectively.
Brogdon-Primavera replied that the city was willing to schedule a meeting or join a Riverfest board meeting to begin planning for 2027.
Both sides have signaled openness to working out a 2027 layout earlier in the planning process.
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