40th Festival of Trees To Shine in Davenport as Major Quad City Arts Fundraiser
The Quad City Arts’ Festival of Trees was born in 1986 with a death mourned around the world.
The legendary 82-year-old actor Cary Grant was to headline a fundraiser for the new Festival of Trees at the then-three-year-old RiverCenter in downtown Davenport, to benefit the Visiting Artist Series (later to merge with the nonprofit Quad City Arts).
The dapper English movie star arrived in Davenport Nov. 28, 1986, stayed at the Blackhawk Hotel and was scheduled to appear at the Adler Theatre for the event (where he planned to take audience questions) the next night. But he fell ill and died of a massive stroke at 11:22 p.m. Nov. 29, 1986 at St. Luke’s Hospital (now MercyOne Genesis) in Davenport. The Adler had been a sell-out.
When Cary Grant died before he could perform at the first Festival of Trees, the ticket revenue went into an account to bring in high-profile theatrical actors and actresses, current Quad City Arts executive director Brian Allen said recently. Although the money that was set aside to bring in these artists was long spent, Quad City Arts continued the tradition of bringing in that genre of artist under the name Cary Grant Residency until the 2010s – presenting acclaimed luminaries such as Lauren Bacall, Edward Albee and Colleen Dewhurst.
FOT has grown and flourished in the years since, and its proceeds support nearly half the cost of Quad City Arts’ annual programming, Allen said.
This is his first FOT as executive director, since starting in the job this past April.
“I’m just honored, and feel amazed to be part of something that has so many volunteers who dedicate so many hours,” Allen said, noting Festival needs the time and talents of over 2,000 volunteers. “I’m also in awe of the structure that does exist. It’s basically started, founded, created and sustained by volunteers. Just stepping into that is kind of ‘Wow,’ and there’s just so much to know. I’m just really excited to be part of it.
“It feels like service to the community, providing this cool tradition people get to take part in every year, but it’s also a fundraiser for our organization,” he said. “It serves two purposes.”
Allen has lived in the QC 13 years, and he and his wife always go to the Holiday Parade with their kids (now 12, 10 and 7).
His wife teaches voice and piano, and would bring her students to perform at Center Stage at FOT. “It’s that tradition, that’s baked into this time of year that I’m so glad, and feel so fortunate to be part of, from this side,” he said.
Center Stage has hosted a wide variety of student performances since the first Festival.
The Visiting Artist Series predates FOT, having started in 1974. The Festival attracts about 40,000 people to the parade, and roughly 100,000 go through the RiverCenter over its 10 days.
Future National Endowment for the Arts funding is a concern, which was one reason Quad City Arts cut its performing arts director position earlier this year, which coordinated the VAS.
“While there have been shifts in some funding sources, including non-NEA grants, the decision to scale back the Visiting Artist Series is not solely a response to financial pressures,” Allen said. “Rather, it reflects a broader and proactive effort to ensure that all of our programs — including the Visiting Artist Series — are aligned with community priorities, fulfill our mission, and are sustainable for the long term.
“This year, we’re deeply engaging with our community through listening sessions to better understand what students, educators, and families need most from arts programming,” Allen said. “Our goal is not just to preserve what we’ve done in the past, but to evolve it into something even more responsive and impactful. We remain fully committed to arts education and are excited to design programming that reflects the voices and values of the community we serve.”
The VAS brings professional artists from around the world directly into local schools — enhancing the curriculum, broadening cultural awareness, and exposing students to artistic forms they may never encounter otherwise. In 2024, the nonprofit reached 40,126 students K-12.
For this fiscal year, Quad City Arts expects about $20,000 in federal funding. This year, there are just four visiting artists, versus 12 last year, and Visiting Artist Series draws from many funding sources.
“We are looking at financial sustainability for our programs, and there are multiple grants that are being reduced from this year to next year,” Allen said recently. “Just our overall income to expenses, that we needed to look at. All those things put together, it was an unfortunate but necessary thing we had to do.”
“One thing we talk about Festival of Trees, it is a fundraiser for our organization as a whole – Visiting Artists, Metro Arts, Chalk Art Fest,” he said.
QC Arts serves a six-county area in eastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois, dedicated to the growth and vitality of the Quad-City region through the presentation, development, and celebration of the arts by offering the community arts opportunities, programming, and community events.
Over 150 displays at Festival
Since the 49,000-square-foot RiverCenter South building opened in fall of 1993, with a skywalk connecting the two, Festival of Trees has occupied both buildings, but concentrating in the south.
The 2025 Festival of Trees (opening with two private events Nov. 20, then open to all Nov. 22-30) will be the 40th year for the event, though it wasn’t held in person during the COVID shutdowns of November 2020.
It features a jaw-dropping variety of holiday festivities (closed Thanksgiving Day), including over 150 designer displays, fun-filled attractions, special events and the largest helium balloon parade in the Midwest (starting 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22).
Though it’s an “all hands on deck” situation among the nonprofit staff, the only full-time employee dedicated to Festival is FOT administrator Sandi Burrichter, who took on the role in May 2024. She had experience in marketing and communications, including managing Quad Cities locations for Harley-Davidson, Old Navy, The Gap and the Black & Gold Shop, as well as doing volunteer philanthropic work.
Burrichter has lived in the QC full-time for 35 years. Pat Wohlford (who is on the 23-person management committee) has volunteered for FOT over 37 years, where it started in what is today’s Mississippi Hall at the RiverCenter in the north building. They really expanded when it grew into RiverCenter South.
At the beginning, Wohlford worked on the facility décor and in the gift shop. “I’ve had a job to do every year since then,” she said. “I keep doing it for what the event does for the community, the children that get opportunities to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise.”
Wohlford is a musician herself (still playing percussion in a community band), and has been very involved in the Quad City Symphony, as past president of Volunteers for Symphony. She’s worked for them over 50 years.
“Every year, there’s been something special and unique that I wish everyone would or could come to see,” Wohlford said of FOT. “It still amazes me that there are people who still have never been to Festival, who have lived here a long time.”
Burrichter had done a lot of volunteer work for Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Family Resources. She has fond memories of taking her two sons (now 35 and 28) to Festival, especially to the Holiday Parade, in all kinds of weather.
“I’ve been out there when it’s super nice and I’ve been out there in sleet one year,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of great memories.”
The chairperson for the new quilt section of FOT has never been to Festival, Burrichter said. They’re not holiday specific quilts, but a variety of designs. They include quilted items like table runners and placemats.
“It’s a new area, and quilting takes a lot of time and expense,” Burrichter said. “We weren’t sure how it was going to go, but it’s a different kind of artistry, so to speak. There’s a lot of hand quilters out there. This is not your grandmother’s quilting anymore; quilting is getting picked up by the younger generations.”
The Mississippi Valley Quilters’ Guild is comprised of over 250 members, she noted.
A lot to learn
Burrichter learned a lot from Wohlford coming into the job, and she said there’s still a lot she doesn’t know.
For Festival, every area has their own chairperson, and there are two main committees – management and steering committee (which itself is devoted to 29 events and areas of FOT). Wohlford is a leader of the management committee, and many of the special events have their own groups.
The management panel makes major decisions, and oversees things. Wohlford oversees large design areas. Her longest service was with designer recruitment and was a past chair for the Grand Salon, the hors d’oeuvres event before the main premiere meal. She’s been secretary to the steering committee.
There’s no limit to the distance that designers need to live to take part in Festival, since they’ve had designers from Rockford and Chicago, and one currently from Sterling. Many designers participate year after year.
They have categories for trees (there will be 61), hearth and home (9), and a new porch category (that replaced steps). They eliminated the room vignettes, except for wood carvers. Wohlford said it will be an interactive space, where Festival guests can watch them work and talk to them. They’ve had that aspect for years.
The seven new porches will have a back wall and a door. The separate door category – often with wreaths – will have a record number of 60 this year, 10 above last year. Some doors can have a general design, not circular, Wohlford said.
It won’t be the most trees they’ve ever had. “It usually works out well; I did have to turn a few away this year, that tried to apply after our deadline,” she said.
The high-school student art exhibit used to be upstairs, in the children’s area, and now it’s in the Great Hall.
2020 (during COVID) was a hard year, as they had a mini-festival display at Quad City Arts, with door designs in the window, Wohlford said. “We had maybe five or six trees, and two or three hearth and home in the gallery. We had a mini-gift shop in the gallery. The hardest part was getting people here to see it.
“Everybody was staying home, wearing masks and not socializing,” she recalled. Ordering things online is “never as good as seeing it in person,” Wohlford said, noting FOT returned in 2021 smaller, but has grown each year since.
The steering committee has always had a wagon in the parade that she rides in, except for 2024, when Wohlford was one of the grand marshals.
“After you go through a few of them, it gets a little easier, but it’s spreading the work out over the year, instead of like waiting until August,” Burrichter said. “I like to spread out the workload, getting it organized. Fully understanding what each area does, and understanding their needs I think is the toughest part. Some of them have been doing it for so long, it’s just natural to them, but to me…I have no idea what you guys are talking about.”
Need for more volunteers
Allen said getting enough volunteers is always a challenge.
“Some of the people who are most likely to volunteer are old enough now that they don’t drive or go out at night,” Wohlford said. “The younger people have different priorities – both family priorities and social priorities. It’s harder and harder.”
“Every not-for-profit is always looking for help,” Burrichter said. “It’s a pretty personal decision.”
The first six months of a year for her centers on deciding the FOT theme, color scheme and plans for ordering materials, to spread expenses out throughout the year. This year’s theme is “Tinsel & Tradition.”
In addition to a dizzying number of displays for sale, many people use Festival as inspiration for how they should decorate their own home and tree for the holidays.
“I’ve been in Hobby Lobby after the Festival, and see people with two and three carts of things they get on sale, and they’re not all Festival designers,” Wohlford said.
People get very creative with FOT designs, incorporating themes like “Star Wars,” “The Grinch,” Martians and paranormal.
“It seems like we always have somebody who does something from a movie, a superhero, or Disney,” Wohlford said. There’s a judging committee that chooses prize-winners.
There are two new prizes – one for nonprofit and one for business, which allows them to use their own advertising or logos in designs.
The Teddy Bear Tea got a new name this year – “Teddy Bears & Treats,” though it’s really the same event, Burrichter said. “Trying to mimic what actually goes on. They got rid of the tea party.”
They can always use more volunteers, especially at admissions, and Burrichter has worked to recruit businesses for that. The other main need is for Reindeer Games, upstairs in four rooms for kids with games, activities and crafts.
“Frankly, when that area is well-staffed, it’s a good area for us on the fundraising side of it,” she said. “It’s a fun way for kids to make stuff and have some fun.”
People can sign up on the website (under “Volunteer”), which lists all the activities and time slots they need help. They have three shifts a day, and each volunteer gets in free to Festival, plus a free ticket to come back.
They also use volunteers for Bo the Bear, who greets visitors (with the volunteer remotely). The control room has a microphone and ways to work the mouth and eyes, Wohlford said.
“They engage the child or adult in conversation,” she said.
FOT admission is:
- Adult: $12
- Child (2-10): $5
- Children under 2: FREE
For much more information, including a complete schedule and volunteer opportunities, visit the FOT website HERE.
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