FestiVille to open with fireworks Friday

Latabra Marshall, left, of Jacksonville lets out a yell and clutches her chest after the Tilt-A-Whirl took a last quick spin to surprise her while Aniyah Lane, then 4, and Amika Lane of Jacksonville laugh in jest during the 2018 FestiVille at Dupree Park in Jacksonville. This year’s festival will take place Friday and Saturday.
Latabra Marshall, left, of Jacksonville lets out a yell and clutches her chest after the Tilt-A-Whirl took a last quick spin to surprise her while Aniyah Lane, then 4, and Amika Lane of Jacksonville laugh in jest during the 2018 FestiVille at Dupree Park in Jacksonville. This year’s festival will take place Friday and Saturday.

— The seventh annual FestiVille at Jacksonville’s Dupree Park will take place Friday and Saturday.

Jacksonville Parks and Recreation events coordinator Megan Vandergriff expects this year’s FestiVille to be the biggest in recent years.

“Most people around here know this used to be the Wing Ding Festival,” Vandergriff said. “It passed through a couple of different hands, including the community center and the chamber of commerce. [The festival] fell through for a little while because there were so many changes going on. Now it’s organized by the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department. It’s a whole-city kind of event.”

Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Director Kevin House, who has been with the city for 11 years, including six as director, has been involved with every FestiVille.

“It is a big undertaking,” House said. “It’s actually one of our biggest events that we put on. All of my staff buys in. We just run with it.”

FestiVille will start at 3 p.m. Friday. Food trucks will be open until 7 p.m. Carnival rides and games will be open until 10 p.m.

Vandergriff said the festival is a way to bring everyone in the city together.

“The idea behind the festival was to have an event that brings not just Jacksonville, but the people at the Little Rock Air Force Base, together,” she said. “Anybody who has been on the air base or any military base knows that it kind of becomes its own community.

“This event gives us an opportunity to pull everyone together.”

Jacksonville Mayor Bob Johnson said FestiVille is a great thing for the city.

“It lets your local businesses get involved and get in touch with the community,” he said. “There is so much to do. I wish everybody would come out from all around and just have a good time.”

FestiVille will have music playing on two stages. A fireworks display at 8 p.m. Friday is the highlight of the first day. On Saturday, American Idol’s TJ Ashley & the Backroad Band will perform at 6 p.m.

“This year is going to be the biggest one yet,” Vandergriff said. “We’ve got bands on two separate stages playing music. We’ve got a carnival coming out. There’ll be canoes on the lake, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament at the community center, a volleyball tournament, a petting zoo, and the Fire Department has a junior challenge for the kiddos.”

Vandergriff said there no admission charge for the event.

“It’s definitely something you don’t want to miss,” she said. “And the best part is that it’s free — free to park, free entry. The only thing you have to pay for is if you want to ride the carnival rides, any food from the food trucks and the stuff from the vendors. Other than that, it’s just a free event to kind of blow off steam.

“We’ll have shuttles from the parking lot so that people do not have to walk that far. It’s a pretty big event.”

Vandergriff said vendors will sell crafts and boutique-type clothing.

“The vendor booths we have, it’s not just local businesses, but we’ll have local craft vendors and direct-sales vendors,” she said. “We’ll have a lot of things that people can buy.”

An estimated 16,000 people attended last year’s FestiVille.

“We have a road counter. … The street department put one out so we could estimate the number of people,” Vandergriff said. “They said it’s based on 3.12 people per vehicle. Last year, we saw about 16,000 people over the two-day event. We’re looking at about 18,000 this year, if not more.”

House said he’s seen growth every year with FestiVille.

“One of the things we do as a department is to add something new every year, and this year, it’s the fireworks on Friday night,” he said. “Our thought process is to try to keep things fresh and keep people coming back and to draw new people in.”

Vandergriff said she started with the Parks and Recreation Department in July 2018. She took part in the planning of last year’s event, but not to the extent she is this year.

“This year, I will be pretty much doing the whole thing from start to finish,” she said. “Of course, I’ve had help from the team. We’re excited. This year, it will be a little bit bigger and a whole lot better.”

Vandergriff said vendor applications, as well as sponsorships and volunteer hours, are still available.

“If anyone wants to be a part of Jacksonville’s largest event, they can definitely contact us. … We’ll find somewhere to put them,” she said. “Sometimes, we have an imaginary deadline, but I’ll have people who come the day of the event and say they want to pay to be a vendor. We’ll have space for them somewhere.”

For more information about sponsorships or vendor spots, call Vandergriff at (501) 982-4171. For more information about the event, including a schedule of events, visit FestiVille on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JacksonvilleFestiVille.

Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.

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