Photo from the Kirkwood Spring Fling Facebook page.

Buzz Burton said things are coming together for Kirkwood’s annual festival on May 17, but he could always use some more help.

The 2014 Kirkwood Spring Fling isn’t going to plan itself.

“I need tons of volunteers,” said Burton, the festival’s chairman. “We have about 80 volunteers signed up currently and we need double that. We’re going to be adding some other beer tents. The beer tent (volunteer jobs) are the ones that fill up first, of course.”

Of course.

A few weeks ago, organizers were rounding up houses to be on the Tour of Homes.  Burton said seven homeowners signed up to open their doors for the tourists the weekend of May 17.

He’s expecting 5,000 people will attend the festival throughout the day, provided the weather cooperates.

“We have most of our food vendors lined up,” Burton said. “We basically have 12 what I’d call large food trucks and four to six carts.”

Pallookaville in Avondale Estates has signed up as one of the food vendors, as has Urban Pie, a Kirkwood pizza joint.

There’ll be live music, a barbecue festival and lots of stuff for the kids, Burton says.

“We actually are doing a lot more in the kids’ area this year,” he said. “We have circus camp coming and they also put on a performance about every hour or two. The bubble man – who’s a big hit – he makes the huge bubbles the kids can almost get into before they pop and they love to chase those around. We have a bounce house, one for little kids and one for bigger kids, and we have Fit-Wit, a kids wake up program. It’s a little exercise program to wake them up in the morning.”

Burton says he visits other festivals around town to get ideas for the Kirkwood event. Today he’ll be at the Inman Park Festival.

“I go to all the festivals,” Burton said. “We’re always looking for ideas, definitely, and Inman Park probably does one of the better kids’ areas.”

About Spring Fling:

The 2014 Kirkwood Spring Fling will be held May 17 at Bessie Branham Park in Kirkwood. It’s a free event.

Here’s the festival schedule:

Festival
Saturday, May 17th 10 am-8 pm

Music
In the park: 11 am-8 pm
Downtown: 8pm-11pm

5k Road Race
8am @ Downtown Kirkwood

Tour of Homes
12pm-6pm Saturday & Sunday

BBQ Competition
12pm-3pm Saturday

For more information or to volunteer, visit http://www.kirkwoodfling.com/