Officials with the Red, White and Blue Festival are busy putting the finishing touches on the this year’s event.
After being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival returns this weekend with the Arkansas State University-Mountain Home campus once again serving as the festival’s central hub.
Lonestar — the country group with 10 No. 1 country hit songs, including the 1999 crossover smash “Amazed” — will perform Friday night. Local favorites The Kattie Laney Project and The Melodikats will perform Saturday night before the festival’s signature fireworks show lights up the sky to close out the event.
Most of the festival’s activities, including the concerts and the fireworks show, are free to the public.
The forecast for Friday calls for a high of 92 with partly cloudy conditions that night. Saturday is expected to be sunny with a high of 92, with a chance of showers Saturday night.
Joel Bratton, the festival’s event coordinator, talks Thursday morning about how the preparation for the festival is going.
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Festivities officially kick off Friday afternoon with the Red, White and Blue parade through downtown Mountain Home and the U.S. Veterans Outreach Suicide Prevention Steak Cookoff on the campus of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home.
The steak cookoff will begin at 4:30 with professional and amateur grillers alike battling for bragging rights and points on the Steak Cookoff Association championship trail.
The parade, which is sponsored by the Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce, will begin rolling through downtown at 5:30 and will begin near Baxter Regional Medical Center and advance towards the courthouse square before ending at Clark’s Office Products.
Following the parade, events return to the ASU-MH campus. The Bad Habits car club and Cruisers of Mountain Home car show will begin following the parade’s conclusion, and the H&L Inflatables kids zone and the event’s vendors will open at 5. The festival’s turtle races, sponsored by Eastside Baptist Church, will begin at 7 as well.
Lonestar will take the stage at 7:30 and is presented by Buncles Brick Oven & Brews and Clay Maxey Chevrolet Cadillac.
The first night of the festival’s rodeo at the Saddle Club Arena also opens Friday evening, with the pre-show starting at 7:30. Admission to the rodeo is $8 for adults and $5 for kids, with those 6 and under getting in for free.
Official festival t-shirts are provided by Arvest Bank and come in different colors. A variety of sizes, including youth sizes, will be available for purchase.
Bratton says look for the event’s big white tent if you want to pick up a shirt.
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Festival attendees may also purchase tickets for the Carter’s Jewel Chest “Jewels for You” drawing at the white tent.
Events scheduled for Saturday include a 5K run and a Volkswagen car show. The Kattie Laney Project will perform on the GTS Physical Therapy Stage at 7:30, with The Melodikats performing at 8:30. The festival’s fireworks display, the largest in north central Arkansas, will begin about 9:30.
Bratton says festival organizers are still searching for additional volunteers.
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Volunteers may sign up by visiting the event’s website, redwhitebluefestival.com, and clicking on the ‘Become a volunteer’ button and providing their contact information. Website visitors may also donate to the festival through PayPal by clicking the donate button in the middle of the page.
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