Ohio River Festival

Episode Transcript

(00:13):
Welcome to Ravenswood Renaissance Podcast, exploringthe past and building the future of Ravenswood,
West Virginia. Here's your host,Mayor Josh Miller. Hey, I'm
Mayor Josh Millard. We're here forthe Ravenswood Renaissance Podcast. We're here for
this episode to talk about festivals inthe city of Ravenswood. I've got a

(00:35):
deputy mayor and festival director Jared Bloxtonhere with me today and our project consultant
Bob Newle. We're gonna talk alittle bit about fairs and festivals in Ravenswood.
We've got the Ohio River Festival comingup August second through the fourth,
and I'm going to let the director, Jared Bloxton take over and say a
few things, and we're just goingto have a conversation today about why festivals

(00:56):
are important to this community and withthe Ohio River Festival offers this region.
So Jared, I'm gonna let youjump in, all right, Thanks Josh.
Really glad to be on today andreally excited for this time of year
for Ravenswood. It seems like it'sfestival fair season everywhere, and Ravenswood has
two really big ones coming up firstand foremost, as you mentioned, the
Ohio River Festival that I'm the directorof and have a great committee that we

(01:19):
work with. And this festival hasbeen going on since nineteen thirty five,
which is incredible when you really thinkabout, you know, how much society
and life has changed since then,and how much Ravens would have changed since
then. That's pre Kaiser era.That's pre of course the newest additions come
to town and really cool to seea festival continue to thrive this long later

(01:42):
and to be a part of it. So, you know, a little
bit different stuff going on this year. We're really excited about our entertainment.
We have a lot of great stufffor the kids and free entry once again
this year thanks to our great sponsors. So tell us give us a little
sight on what it's like putting togethera festival, because I know what it's
like being a mayor and a lotof the times it's hectic, but I

(02:06):
know you have a lot of peopleyou probably want to thank, and it
just what what goes through your mindsix months out from the festival compared to
two weeks before the festival. Well, you know, our festival is the
first full weekend in August every year. So just to give you an idea,
I literally start planning for the nextyear's festival in October. Uh,
sometime sooner. We start getting ourentertainment book. You want to get them

(02:29):
at a good price. You wantto get you know, the certain ones
that you want down there for thefestival. Uh, So you your book
as early as possible. You starthitting up the sponsors whenever you can.
Uh. You try to give themtime to breathe. But uh, it's
uh, it's a lot. It'sit's year round, certainly, but it's
a lot of fun and and itwe have fundraisers throughout the year. Uh.

(02:49):
The committee uh really works very hardand works well together with our pageants.
Is a great fundraiser. We cantalk about a little bit and uh,
you know what we've we've done differentthings in the past with golf scrambles
to help raise some money. Andit's it's a lot of fun. It's
a lot of work, but it'sso rewarding being able to do this.
But you're right, you get sixmonths out, you start getting a little

(03:10):
nervous now too. You know,when you start getting a couple of weeks
out or a month out, that'swhen you really start tightening up and just
make sure you have all your eyesdotted and tease crossed. And you've got
a you've got a great committee,and they've they've done a great job with
this whole thing. And yes,I'm excited to see all this come to
fruish and again as a as adad to three little girls, I can't

(03:32):
think of a better spot to takemy family than the Great Bend at the
Ohio River Festival. I kind oftalk a little bit about what entertainment you
have, what the kids will haveto do, just give people kind of
a visualization of what the Ohio RiverFestival's gonna look like. And I know
you're gonna don't have to name everything. I know you're gonna miss one thing

(03:53):
or two, but this just kindof help us visualize. Well, a
big thing that we have this yearfor not only the kids, but for
every age group adults too. Wedo have a carnival coming midways by M
and j aut A New Matamore,Ohio. They're bringing rides that are suited
for adults and for kids. Severalrides. They'll have carnival games set up
as well. That people can payto play, but the carnival. Instead

(04:17):
of having to pay per ride orpay for twenty five bucks for an arm
band, it is actually free foreveryone to ride the entire time. They'll
be set up Friday, Saturday andSunday. Our hours and everything are on
our Facebook page of course for that. But the same with the inflatables.
Quantum party rentals is coming this year. We have some really cool inflatables inflatable
acts throwing, which I'm excited tocheck that out and see what that's like.

(04:41):
I'm told that they're not obviously sharpaccess, so that would not work
otherwise, but yeah, that's gonnaalso be free for the kids and young
adults and adults to do that stuffthe entire festival. When people ask us
all the time, they say,well, how much of the tickets for
the concerts. There's no tickets forthe concerts for this one that we were
able to have free once again thisyear, not only thanks to the sponsors

(05:03):
but the past president Lucy Harbord ofthe festival. She did such a great
job saving and budgeting and set usup good to be able to get through
some tougher times if need be.So that's how important the Ohio River Festival
has been to so many people inthe community for so long. And Lucy's
been a former mayor as well,so she knows about, you know,
balancing the books and what these typesof things mean for the community. Speaking

(05:27):
of former mayors, I always likeBob Nol to chime in a little bit
on all of our podcasts. So, Bob, as a former mayor,
what what do you feel that festivalsand things like this do for a region
and a community. Well, it'salways a good opportunity to show case your
city and bring people from the outsideas well as people who live around the

(05:48):
town as well. But you know, you like to track people from the
outside as well, so hopefully they'llcome back and you know, spend some
money in your town and help withthe local colomy. And of course there's
always a boost to local businesses whenthese festivals come. And in this year,
I think, you know, weshould should mention that one of the
added amenities that wasn't present before isthe campgrounds and the marina. I understand

(06:15):
the boat slips are all leased alreadyfor that weekend and not available, but
I'm sure there are still campgrounds availablethere. There are yep, And I
know some have been booked up already, which is exciting, And you're absolutely
right, Bob that uh you know, the campground is a game changer for
for not only our festival and ourother festivals, but just the area in
general. We've had a lot ofextra folks stopping in and staying in those

(06:39):
areas and it's turning out to bea really nice location done it, And
that goes back to sometimes I saythere's a method to my madness, and
this is these are puzzle pieces thatwe got to put together, and this
campground and Marina just adds on towhat this town has to offer. And
to be able to allow those folksto come here instead of stay somewhere else

(07:00):
as they come into this festival andcome into our town. I mean,
that's that's what all this was intendedfor. And sometimes you don't see those
results right away. But now sometimesyou think you're crazy when you're taking on
all these projects. But now wehave the High River Festival harvest and those
boat slips are completely full. Thecampsites likely will be as well. So
it's exciting to see some of thisstuff come full circle. Because again,

(07:24):
sometimes you think you're crazy when you'regoing this route and sometimes I am still
but uh, you know, I'mvery appreciative of everybody, all of our
volunteers and our sponsors that step upand make this stuff happen, because if
it was easy, everybody would bedoing it. This stuff is stressful and
it's it's exciting, but it's stressfulmost of the time. But people step

(07:45):
up, you know, folks likeJared, you know, they're the ones
that keep things moving and makes thesememories for families. I mean, that's
it's it's exciting to see these thingshappen. I'm proud of Jared, and
is I just want to say,is there anything else you want to add,
you know, about any of theother entertainment, your sponsors, anything
like that when it comes to theOhio River Festival, because I appreciate everything

(08:05):
you've done well. You're very welcome. It's certainly my honor to do it,
and we have a great committee that'shappy to do it as well,
and it takes a lot of pridein it, as you know. Big
thing otherwise for our festival as ourentertainment, we work with the RMA,
our talent agent. They're fantastic Theyalways are great help to us and they

(08:26):
get us set up for great entertainment. On Friday Night, we have Kate
Boytech and she is opening up fortwenty twenty two American Idol winner Noah Thompson.
He's from Louisa, Kentucky, sohe's kind of a local guy as
well. I hear he's a trueKentucky boy and a really nice guy and
he's going to be put on agreat show for us. On Saturday Night,

(08:46):
Great Entertainment once again, we haveMelissa Quinn Fox coming back this year
opening for Jack and Davis Reid.They put on a great show. They're
the grandsons of the Statler brothers.They put kind of a novelty country act
on are really fun. You wantto try to be in our parade this
year too, so we're hoping they'reable to make it. And then our
headliner Saturday Night Billy Dean, countrymusic legend. Of course, no introduction

(09:09):
needs is needed there for him.We're thrilled to have Billy Dean come and
you know a lot of top tensfor him and excited to have him.
And then Jackson County's own Johnny Statsand the Delivery Boys on Sunday. Everybody
certainly knows, even including a lotof folks in Nashville as you well know,
and very respected mandolin player and musicianand they always are a great part

(09:31):
of our festival when we're able tohave them. So think about this.
You got free entry, you gotfree carnival rides, free entertainment. Mean,
the only thing you're paying for isif you come and buy food or
you participate in a in a drawingthat we have anything like that. I
mean, where else in West Virginiacan you go do that? Yep.

(09:54):
So that's that's my pitch here,and I don't think I need to say
any more about that. This isprimetime entertain You know, this is rural
country at its best, you know, rural small town America. And you
get to come in there for freebecause of our sponsors, because of those
that makes makes this stuff happen.Yeah. So I can't think of any
better opportunity to spend time and makememories with your family and your friends and

(10:18):
get introduced to a community. Thencome into Ravens with West Virginia August second
through the fourth. You're gonna havea good time, ye And it's free
food vendors, craft vendors. Wegot over twenty craft vendors. We've got
great food vendors, desserts. Youknow, obviously you pay for that stuff,
but that's great. You can saveyour money and you know, family
of four can come in and stillbe able to enjoy the festival and buy

(10:39):
a meal if they'd like to.And we're just excited to be able to
offer it. We're really thrilled that, you know, to be able to
put this event on year after year, and we hope to continue it for
a long time. So again,you know, free entry into the Ohio
River Festival, you know, freecarnival rides. I mean, the only
thing you go pay for when you'rethere is food. So you know,

(11:00):
while you're there, if you wantto stay at a campsite again, our
boat slips are already rented. Someof our campsites are still available. You
can go to Great Bend Campground dotcom and still reserve your spot until you
can't. I don't know how manyspots are still open. Hey, as
far as our festival too. Forthe Riverfest, we can check out our
Facebook page. We have a lotof info on there. Also, the
city of Ravenswood website. Everything islinked to there, and you know,

(11:24):
just you know, a lot goingon, like we said, and Josh
also, you know, not toolong after Harvest in the Woods coming right
around the Bend as well. Soyeah, we got Harvest in the Wood
Festival coming up as well, Septembertwenty sixth through the twenty ninth. Same
thing there. We'll have boat Slipsopen, the Great Bend Campground will be
open. We've got a big headliner, Cooper Allen. He's a big country

(11:46):
music star, has ten million followerson TikTok. I'm not that big on
TikTok, but apparently it's the thingnow. Now this is more of a
music festival, so there will betick. It's sold. It's twenty dollars
a ticket for Friday night. We'vegot to link up on event bright.
We're going to talk about this more, probably on our next podcast, the

(12:07):
more I think about it, becausewe've got one more left here out of
the package that we purchase. Sowe're going to talk about Harvest next time.
But this is another, like Isaid, music festival, but it
is a community oriented event. We'vegot kid zones, we've got a beer
garden in this one, it's justa it's a different vibe. And that's
the thing we want to do hereeach each month, each festival, each

(12:28):
event. We want it to beunique to Ravens with thinks people are going
to remember and it's gonna these thingsbring people into your community. And I'm
proud of the folks that have putthat together as well. I mean,
you don't you can't imagine how manygreat volunteers and folks we have stepping up
to do these things, because it'snot easy. Again, like I said
a million times, it's stressful.But at the end of the day,

(12:48):
when you see the fireworks up inthe air, I know that's something else
yep for or if as well,you know it's it's a moment you remember
with your family and friends forever.And I'm excited about the Ohio River Festival,
Harvest in the Wood Festival to seeso many people coming into our community.
We probably had ten thousand people inthere for Uncle Cracker last year.

(13:09):
And we've learned as well because wegot overwhelmed during that event. And that's
all you got to do in thisrealm. You got to learn. And
these are exciting times in this regionand we've got good people behind the helm
making these things happen. So Icouldn't I couldn't be prouder to be Mayor
of Ravenswood. I know Jared's beenon council for how many years now?

(13:31):
Twelve years? Twelve I thought itwas fifteen. It will be by the
time we take exactly will so he'sgot the experience. He's actually the person
that I that talked me into runningfrom mayor and not a lot of people
know that. I'm happy he did. And it's just it's great to be
a part of all this and tosee all these things happen that we talked
about early on. So exciting times. So last thing, Ohigho River Festival

(13:54):
has its own Facebook page. Okay, Harvest in the Wood Festival has its
own Facebook page. But if youwant to it all at once, go
to Cityofravenswood dot com and you'll beable to track all those down on our
website. You got everything from thecampground Reynolds to what's going on at the
festivals. Check out Cityfravenswood dot comand you'll be able to find everything you
need. You've been listening to RavenswoodRenaissance a podcast exploring the past and building

(14:20):
the future of Ravenswood, West Virginia. Find it on your iHeartRadio app,
or wherever you get your podcast.You'll also find us on Facebook and YouTube,
and listen for our next Ravenswood Renaissancepodcast coming soon.