River-Cade has more than five decades of history in Sioux City

Back then, the city had recently been named the northern most port on the Missouri River for barge traffic. Members of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce -- Waterways Committee, founded the summer festival to celebrate this designation and to showcase the area's potential for continued economic development and its current outstanding quality of life.

Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey and Lawrence Welk attended the first River-Cade, during which hundreds of people gathered along the Missouri River banks to watch power boat races, water skiing, a turtle derby and a raft regatta.

Although River-Cade lost some of its luster when barge traffic never matched that experienced in other port cities, the festival, which is now in its 56th year, continued on. River-Cade features 11 days of events in July, but Phil Claeys said it really has become a year-long festival that now boasts a total of 25 events.

"River-Cade is Siouxland's signature celebration," said Claeys, the festival's longtime events coordinator. "For 20-some years, River-Cade was the only thing going on in the summertime. Obviously, that changed with Saturday in the Park, Awesome Biker (Nights) and ArtSplash."

Since River-Cade moved from the Riverfront it has had a number of homes from Chautauqua Park to the Tyson Events Center parking lot. The festival still has strong ties to the riverfront and will return when the Missouri Riverfront redevelopment project is complete.

Plans call for the project to be completed in three phases, beginning in the spring of 2020 and ending in the fall of 2023. Key pieces of the project include two pavilions, a basketball court, a dog park, a soft surface playground for children and a fishing pier platform.

"We're having more and more activities down on the riverfront. Once the riverfront development is done, we will move almost all of our events back down on the riverfront," Claeys said. "We are part of that development plan. River-Cade will return to the riverfront."

Many of River-Cade's staple events remain in place, such as the crowning of the Port of Sioux City River-Cade queen and the River-Cade Smile Contest, which allows children to show off their best grins.

"The family activities during the summertime that we had enjoyed over the years has kind of kept it going," Claeys said.

Over the years, River-Cade added January homemade cardboard sled races to the festival's lineup. The Barstool Open, a mini-golf pub-crawl in the beginning of May, followed. Another popular event associated with River-Cade is the Youth Fishing Derby, which is held in June at Bacon Creek Park. Claeys said it's one of his favorite events.

"We've taken almost 9,000 children fishing over the years. We'll be taking another 400 this year. They get a rod, reel and tackle box and most of them have never been fishing before," he said. "That is such a worthwhile and joyful experience."

This year's summer events include a parade, car show, smile contest, golf tournament, live music, hot dog eating contest and royalty coronation July 13-20. River-Cade continues with the Kingdom of Riverssance Renaissance Festival at Riverside Park Oct. 5-6.

"I look at it that we create a playground and we just invite everyone to come and play," Claeys said.