The Summer Arts Festival held for the Cape Girardeau community at Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus was a success for the second time this year. The free, all day event was held on June 20 and included several different art exhibitions, children's activities and food vendors.

"This year's summer arts festival had more events than the first year," Rhonda Weller-Stilson, director of the Earl and Margie Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts at the River Campus, said in an email. "We offered double the amount of entertainment on the outdoor stage; increased the amount of children's hands on activities; added additional performances of the high school camps; utilized the Dobbins Center (which was under construction the first year); more face painting opportunities; more food and drink sources; doubled the dance class offerings; and added several new things such as stage combat exhibition, writing workshop, storytelling and a new art exhibition."

Attendance rose from around 1,200 people in 2014 to more than 2,000 this year, and the number of volunteers working the event rose to more than 200 this year.

"[We're] very happy with the growth," Weller-Stilson said. "We analyzed the comments from last year and really worked on making improvements. Frankly, we had almost no new suggestions from guests this year. It went very well. We deemed it a huge success."

Mia Thompson, a dance major at Southeast was one of the many student volunteers. She helped dance students get ready for their festival performances, helped teach dance classes and was a dancer in the dance concert.

"To me it was obvious that everyone who came to the festival just loved watching everything we had to offer," Thompson said.

On top of all the exhibitions and classes offered at the festival, "Seussical the Musical" was produced and sold out for every showing.

"Last year's performance of 'Nunsense' was a hit and sold out six or eight performances, but this year's production of Seussical sold out 10 of 10," Weller-Stilson said. "We had 16 children from the community perform with the 15 college student cast, and the kids were fantastic. It was a very popular show and I only heard rave reviews."

Along with Weller-Stilson, the volunteers and community also took note of Seussical being the star of the show.

"Definitely everyone's favorite part was Seussical," Thompson said. "It was such an amazing show our theatre department put on."

Next year's Summer Arts Festival is already in planning stages, and Weller-Stilson said this event is likely to become an annual activity for the River Campus.

"We are expanding the theatre productions for next summer to include a musical, a comedy and a children's theatre piece," Weller-Stilson said. "We will keep everyone posted as we secure rights. We are excited to be able to expand the offerings after only a few years."

As the event continues to grow, so does the list of people to thank.

"This festival would not occur without the combination of students, staff, faculty and the community coming together," Weller-Stilson said. "All of these groups worked the entire day in every aspect. With over 200 volunteers, there was a representation of all groups throughout the day. This year the athletes joined us at the festival and it added tremendously to the success of the event. They were great spirits and worked as hard as all of our visual and performing arts students. You found students teaching, creating, performing, and volunteering all over the campus. We always need volunteers, and any major can sign up for next summer."