30th anniversary show attracts nearly 54,000 to expanded facility

Quilts founder Karey Bresenhan, left, receives a Houston mayoral proclamation from City Council Member Carol Alvarado during council proceedings in October.

HOUSTON, Texas — The 30th anniversary edition of Houston’s International Quilt Festival — the world’s largest annual quilt show, sale, and quilt-making academy — set an all-time attendance record this year. The 2004 festival, held last month at the George R. Brown Convention Center, reached a total attendance level of 53,989, Quilt Festival officials reported.

In addition to showcasing more than 1,900 quilts, dolls, and wearable art and offering more than 450 classes and lectures, the festival also featured more than 1,000 merchant booths selling everything from antique and contemporary finished quilts to fabrics, books, patterns, jewelry, sewing machines, antiques, gifts, and country crafts. It is also the first public convention to use all five ground-floor exhibit halls of the newly expanded Brown Convention Center.

“We really wanted to pull out all the stops to make this festival the most special ever, and many of our attendees tell us we certainly succeeded in that,” Quilts Festival director and founder Karey Bresenhan said.

Bresenhan said the City of Houston also participated in promoting the show. Recognition came with an official proclamation from Mayor Bill White, banners throughout the city at high-traffic areas, and, in recognition of the 30th year anniversary, the permanent installation of the “Power of Houston” quilt in a specially constructed niche at the entrance to the Explore Houston visitor and information center at the Brown Convention Center.

The dates for the 2005 International Quilt Festival in Houston will be October 27-30, with classes beginning October 24.

The GRBCC, which underwent expansion in 2003, ranks among the 10 largest convention centers in America with nearly 1.2 million square feet of exhibition, meeting and registration space. For more information, please call 800/427-4697 or visit www.houstonconventionctr.com.

Contact:

Pete Radowick
713-853-8077
peter.radowick@cityofhouston.net

Anna Hawley
713-853-8287
anna.hawley@cityofhouston.net