CINCINNATI POST: 'Tall Stacks a success.'

I think if some entity wants to do a music -only festival along the river, let them. But the Tall Stacks commission, board, or whatever it is, should only deal with the next gathering of boats, whenever that occurs. Since it's several years away, that will give the music people a chance to succeed or fail before the boats appear again. And if the music faction wants to call it Tall Stacks, sock em for the copyrighted name, to provide 'seed money' for the boat event. I could see a music festival going ok there, but I suspect it won't draw as much as the boats alone, and conversely maybe the boats need the music element for the event to be successful. One thing not mentioned in this article was the price they were paying to attract the musicians. That was always an argument about the boats, their expense, but I recall reading an article this year stating that they didn't get the top musical names they wanted due to the expense. So if they want a musical extravaganza to draw on its own, they'll have to ante up a bit more I think. It will be interesting to see what develops... Bernstein's got a big enough fleet and Queen City too, that they could just go with them to augment a musical affair, at less expense than the out of town boats.

My sentiments exactly. Here in Paducah we have an annual Summer Festival, with musical entertainment being the big draw. I have engineered live television coverage of the event since 1990 through our college's local access public channel. Still, a festival with live music as its main draw is just not in the same league as the largest gathering of paddlewheel riverboats in the world.

Tall Stacks is all about the boats, the whistles and the ambiance not found anywhere else. Those are the sights and sounds that need to be promoted. It's not a rock concert. The musical entertainment sure doesn't need to be getting the top billing, as it did this year. I would not go from Paducah to Cincinnati just to see the equivalent of our Summer Festival, but I would and have been going to have the opportunity to see the boats, hear the whistles and calliopes and take my family on a dinner cruise up and down the Ohio. This is a world class event and needs to be promoted as such in the future.

Judy Patsch;1921 wrote: I think if some entity wants to do a music -only festival along the river, let them. But the Tall Stacks commission, board, or whatever it is, should only deal with the next gathering of boats, whenever that occurs. Since it's several years away, that will give the music people a chance to succeed or fail before the boats appear again. And if the music faction wants to call it Tall Stacks, sock em for the copyrighted name, to provide 'seed money' for the boat event. I could see a music festival going ok there, but I suspect it won't draw as much as the boats alone, and conversely maybe the boats need the music element for the event to be successful. One thing not mentioned in this article was the price they were paying to attract the musicians. That was always an argument about the boats, their expense, but I recall reading an article this year stating that they didn't get the top musical names they wanted due to the expense. So if they want a musical extravaganza to draw on its own, they'll have to ante up a bit more I think. It will be interesting to see what develops... Bernstein's got a big enough fleet and Queen City too, that they could just go with them to augment a musical affair, at less expense than the out of town boats.