News Summary

• St. Charles puts on about 65 events annually.
• Of those, 40 are organized by the city’s special events and communications department.
• The convention and visitors bureau, which is part of city government, organizes the Legends and Lanterns, Christmas and Valentine festivals.
• Those three events have grown over the years, attracting hundreds of thousands of people to downtown St. Charles annually.
• But having two city departments organizing similar events is counterproductive, says the city's director of Administration Larry Dobrosky.