The party was up and moving this year at the Karnes City Rotary Club’s 14th annual Lonesome Dove Fest September 22 and 23. Event officials are calling it a huge success and estimate roughly 10,000 people attended.

Motel rooms and bed-and-breakfasts around the county were booked solid as people from out of town flocked to the county for the two-day event.

"I would say it was a tremendous success," festival chairman Cletus Bianchi said. "Apparently the word is out via the Web site and things like that and we’ve got more and more people interested in being a part of it."

Attendance was up from last year, cook off participation nearly doubled in size, more than 50 teams participated in the team shoot, and more than 50 vendors set up booths.

There was plenty of food, exhibits like the live shark show and snake handlers, and plenty of southern and Cajun music.

Rain held back for almost the entire duration of the event, leaving event-goers’ boots dry until the late evening hours of the dance September 23.

"From what I understand, even though there were two or three inches of water running through the tent when the big storm blew in, it didn’t stop the people who wanted to stay and dance. They were there until closing time," Bianchi said.

Smokey Wilson performed during the day along with local artists Bucky Schulz, John Wayne Schulz, Nancy Brundrett and others. Bubba Brown and the Super Cajuns with special guest Sean O’Brien performed the main show Saturday night, which topped off the festival’s Cajun theme for this year.

"It’s fun music. It’s the kind of music where you can’t really sit still. The reports I have is that the party went on until they made (people) leave," Bianchi said of the Saturday evening show.

Other than the rain during the last few hours of the festival, the only adverse weather was the typical Texas heat with temperatures topping 95 degrees. Event coordinators already are talking about getting more outdoor air conditioning units for next year’s event.

Bianchi extended his appreciation to all the sponsors and volunteers for this year’s Lonesome Dove Fest.

"We have more and more sponsors that are taking interest when they see what we’re doing with the kids and they see the families walking around at the festival," he said, adding, "It would be absolutely impossible for a rotary club with 26 members to pull off what we did without all the volunteers showing up."

Each year the Karnes City Rotary Club hosts Lonesome Dove Fest on the opening weekend of Dove Season in the south zone. The event is the group’s main fundraiser. Money raised is spent on scholarships for Karnes County high school students and many other community efforts.