Today is Fountain Day, a holiday where Kansas City would typically celebrate dozens of fountains flowing for the first time for the year.
After no 2020 Fountain Day celebration due to the pandemic (although people still got creative and put masks on local fountain statues, taking part in a national trend), this year’s celebrations kicked off at 10 am at the Delbert Haff Circle Fountain at Swope Park.
It’s #FountainDay in #KCMO Official ceremony is 10am, Delbert Haff Circle Fountain at the entrance to Swope Park…
Posted by Kansas City, MO Parks and Recreation on Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Haff Fountain got a renovation overhaul back in the winter of 2018-2019, which cost $1.5 million. The fountain was installed in 1940, and its pipes had shown their 80 years of age.
This year, only seven of the forty-eight public fountains in Kansas City will run due to Kansas City Parks budget restraints. According to Fox 4, this is also the reason why Fountain Day was pushed back this year—in a normal-climate year, the fountains usually flip on in mid-April. The Parks department has requested $6 million in funding from the city’s share of the American Rescue Plan, the federal Covid-19 relief bill passed earlier this year.
Along with the Delbert Haff Fountain, here are the other six fountains that also started flowing this morning:
- Mill Creek Park Fountain
- Firefighters Memorial Fountain
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fountain
- The Children’s Fountain off Burlington Street
- The Seahorse Fountain at City Hall
