Riverfest Duck Race becomes ‘Duck Splash’

MONTICELLO — Ah, Minnesota life. If there are two things you cannot plan around when organizing a summer festival in Minnesota, it is the unpredictable weather, and road construction.

It seems the Riverfest Committee has been dealt both cards this year in regards to the Riverfest Duck race, which is being redubbed as the “Duck Splash,” with a new location due to bridge work and unsafe river conditions.

“It is regretful that we cannot bring the normal race festivities to the community this year, but we hope this will be a fun alternative,” said Wes Olson, one of the festival organizers.

Annually, the ducks are dropped off the Highway 25 bridge care of some creatively built drop boxes, where they are escorted down river to the Ellison Park collection site.

But due to bridge repair work being done by MnDOT, which starts on Monday, the bridge will not be accessible for the Riverfest crew to set up the drop boxes.

In addition, with the river being so high with such strong currents thanks to all of the recent rain, organizers said it would be difficult to safely manage the boats to effectively collect the ducks following the race.

Instead, the Riverfest Duck Drop committee has come up with an alternative, with the cooperation of the Monticello Community Center, and the Royalty Ambassador committee.

The annual event has been revamped as the Riverfest Duck Splash, to be held Saturday, July 13 in the Monticello Community Center swimming pool.

All 5,000 ducks will be placed in the pool that afternoon. At 4:30 p.m., the three current Royalty Ambassadors will be invited to join the ducks via the pool slide.

This event can be witnessed from 4 to 4:30 p.m. from the hallway windows of the MCC, as no access will be allowed to the pool deck.

Once the Duck Splash has been completed, ducks will be selected by the Royal Ambassadors and registered poolside by a committee representative.

The winners will be announced later that evening at the Saturday night street dance, which will be held behind the Monticello Community Center, and will also be posted on the Riverfest website.

Ducks are still up for adoption.

Leading up to Riverfest, watch for duck adoption booths at local businesses. For a suggested donation of $5 or more, you can adopt an official Riverfest Duck to compete in the alternative event.