Posted: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:07 AM - 12,598 Readers

By: Staff Reports

AquaPalooza 2010 was a terrific success.

Organizers at Russell Lands expected a smaller crowd this year since AquaPalooza’s signature event was held on Lake Austin, Texas and because this year’s headline act John Anderson doesn’t have the same gravitational pull as last year’s headliner, Alan Jackson.

So it was something of a surprise that so many people gathered in Kowaliga Basin on Saturday afternoon. Although it’s impossible to get an accurate count in a mostly free event without tickets or gates, estimates range from 10,000 to 20,000 people. We’d bet that, including the curious who rode up and stayed for a short time, the total was at the high end of that range.

To put that in perspective, about 14,000 people live in Alexander City and a sold-out concert at the Lake Martin Amphitheater will be seen by 5,000. No matter how you look at it, AquaPalooza was a very large event for this part of the world.

And although it definitely was a party in the water, this year’s show was very well managed and progressed almost without a hitch. There was one short-lived scuffle in the swimming area, but no substantial injuries reported. Compare that to the Russell Medical Center emergency room on any day.

Marine police made a total of 54 arrests, mostly related to alcohol charges. More than half – 34 – were on minors possessing alcohol charges. That is a high number, but the number of marine police officers working the lake went from two on a normal Saturday to nine on AquaPalooza Saturday. While this is sheer speculation, if nine police officers were working the Chimney Rock area, we bet the number of alcohol-related charges would be high on most summer Saturdays.

So all in all, for an event that attracted roughly 20,000 people, we’d say AquaPalooza was an overwhelming success. It turned the public spotlight on our area’s biggest drawing card, brought thousands of consumers to our market and turned a swealtering Saturday into a memorable, good time.