160 2014 Art & Balloon Festival Lincoln Daily News.com August 25, 2014
Festival spread across weekends
2015 Festivals schedule announced
June through September
E
ach year it seems that the events and participants of those events at the
Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival increase in size and number. In the first 20 to
25 years of the festival that growth was a good thing. But now in the last few
years, it has become a detriment to local businesses according to Andi Hake of the
Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce.
Therefore, the decision has been made to
spread the biggest draws of the festival
across four weekends, one per month in
June, July, August and September next
year.
Saturday evening Hake and city of Lincoln
Mayor Keith Snyder announced what the
festival will look like in 2015.
On the weekend of June 5th through 7th,
the Up in Smoke Barbecue will take place.
The event will be grouped with the Oasis
Craft and Flea Market and the Railsplitter
Antique Auto Club car show. Added to the
event will be a downtown beer tent and live
jazz music.
The Fine Art Fair and the Art of Wine &
Brew will take place on the weekend of
July 18 and 19. It will be grouped with the
7th Annual Family Fun Day hosted by the
Open Arms Christian Fellowship Church.
New to the event that weekend will be live
Jazz music in the downtown area.
The Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival will
become the Lincoln Balloon Festival. It
will be held the same weekend as it has
been in the past, August 28th and 29th. All
the activities of the balloon festival will
take place at the Logan County Airport.
The festival will include the giant kites of the Wisconsin
Kiters, who have been coming for the past few years.
There are also plans to expand activities at the airport
between flights. Among those plans, more family games and
activities, more live music, and of course food.
In September of 2015, the National Railsplitting Festival
will be held on the 18th through the 20th, primarily at
the Logan County Fairgrounds. The Postville Courthouse
1800’s Craft Fair will be added to that weekend event, with
hopes of adding other events at Postville Park as well.
Hake and Snyder shared these plans with the public and
press from the wine tent in downtown Lincoln on Saturday
Continued
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STORY BY NILA SMITH
