By Sarrah Peters, News Editor
The City of Attalla is hosting the annual Heritage Day Festival on Saturday, October 15 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in historic downtown Attalla. The downtown Attalla streets will be closed at 4 p.m. on Friday.
The event will take place rain or shine. Admission is free.
Heritage Day has been held for 29 years and draws big crowds.
“We usually have, if the weather is pretty, 12 to 14,000 people attend,” said Lisa Spears, the Heritage Day co-chairman.
Heritage day is full of music of all types, such as big band, motown, zydeco, gospel and southern rock, and has three stages: the Buffalo Rock stage in front of Wells Fargo, the City of Attalla stage in front of the Attalla Post Office and the Variety stage at the water department intersection.
“We have a little bit of everything,” said Spears.
On the Buffalo Rock stage there will be a welcome by the mayor, an opening prayer, the national anthem and a flag presentation from 8:50 –to 9 a.m. From 9 to 9:20 a.m. the Etowah High School Band will perform. At 10 until 11 a.m., the Kings of Swing will take the stage. IIDa Maxx, a motown band, will perform from 12 to 2 p.m. Curley Taylor and the Zydeco Trouble will perform last at 2:30 to 5 p.m.
On the City of Attalla stage EHS Theatre of Gadsden’s Strut will perform from 9 to 10 a.m. The EHS Singers will perform from 10:05 to 10:30 a.m. Jim “Dawg” Parks Band will perform from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Michael Jacobs will perform from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Corner Pocket will perform from 3 to 4:15 p.m. Keegan Bost Music will perform from 4:20 to 5 p.m.
On the Variety stage Starpower will perform from 9 to 10 a.m. Jeremy Noble Band will perform from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Vintage Gray will perform from 1 to 2:45 p.m. GloryBound will perform from 3 to 4:15 p.m.
“We appreciate the Etowah High School students in the EHS JROTC, the EHS Band and the EHS Singers for helping us out,” said Spears.
In addition to music, there will also be over 100 food and craft vendors. There are so many vendors the city opened several additional spaces after the first 100 were filled.
Food vendors will carry all the favorite fair foods, including barbecue, cheesesteaks, funnel cakes, ice cream and snow cones. Craft vendors will sell t-shirts, jewelry, palette art, painted gourds and many fall and holiday items.
There will be an open car show. Registration is $20. With registration, participants are eligible to win money from a $1000 money tree and receive door prizes.
For kids, there will be a children’s area with free small carnival rides, inflatables, and clear gerbil balls.
“Everybody loves it,” said Spears. “It’s really good family entertainment.”
The Heritage Day sponsors include the City of Attalla, Buffalo Rock, Johnson’s Giant Foods, Commissioner Larry Payne, Rick’s Discount Drugs, Etowah County Tourism, Exchange Bank, Lineage Logistics, Holiday Inn Express, Rhea, Boyd & Rhea Attorneys, Browning Enterprises, Inc., Modern Heating and Cooling, Tophies and Signs USA, The Cupboard, Republic Services, Ferguson Florist, R& L Farms and Kyuka Whitetails, SP Enterprises and Bob’s Tire Service.
“We are very grateful for our loyal sponsors,” said Spears. “Without them, we wouldn’t be able to make this happen.”
For more information, call Lisa Spears at 256-538-9266.