Wagoner's Summerfest Helps The City Raise Funds While Boosting Local Businesses, Nonprofits

Wagoner is gearing up for its oldest festival later this month. From June 20 through June 22, there will be food, music, and fun in historic downtown Wagoner.

Summerfest, now in its 63rd year, is also a major fundraiser for the chamber of commerce and nonprofits in and around Wagoner.

The chamber uses Summerfest as an opportunity to raise funds for all of the various projects it plans throughout the year.

Since it is located downtown, local businesses also see an uptick in sales as well with all of the foot traffic in the area.

"We like to have it downtown because we like to help the local businesses down there. That is our main goal: to draw people to downtown Wagoner. It is the heart of Wagoner. To be able to get those businesses to thrive as well, so that is one of our main purposes of having it down there every year," Christin Patten, the Executive Director of the Wagoner Chamber of Commerce said.

Many nonprofits get the opportunity to set up booths during Summerfest. This not only gives the chamber funds for future projects, including Summerfest, but these other nonprofits get the opportunity to raise funds as well.

"The chamber's main focus is to help local businesses and nonprofits be able to thrive in this community. So that’s really our goal as a chamber is to help them also build their organization," Patten said.

People interested in attending Summerfest can do so by purchasing their tickets ahead of time at the chamber or at Summerfest itself.