Sunbury, Galena share resources planning both August 25 events

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Just like last year, Galena Sum­mer­fest and Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds will share a lot of sim­i­lar­i­ties; both August 25 events will host arts and crafts ven­dors, have live music, children’s activ­i­ties, food ven­dors and out­side beer gardens.

Last year, when Galena Sum­mer­fest chair Jane White and Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds event coor­di­na­tor Theresa Drons­field dis­cov­ered that their respec­tive fes­ti­vals, just down the road from each other, shared the same date, they put their heads together and decided to share plan­ning, pro­gram­ming and pro­mo­tion resources to enhance both events.

They planned two dis­tinct and sep­a­rate events, but coop­er­ated to make the two events seam­less for patrons. Each fes­ti­val drew approx­i­mately 8,000 peo­ple from around Cen­tral Ohio, and that sym­bi­otic rela­tion­ship worked so well that it was decided that both fes­ti­vals would be held on the same day again this year.

White, who owns Mud­flats Bar & Grill in Galena, said the 2012 Galena Sum­mer­fest is going to be big­ger and bet­ter than the 2011 ver­sion; and, best of all, through­out the day and evening both fes­ti­vals will be con­nected via a free, open-air shut­tle run­ning on a 15-minute loop between Galena and Sun­bury so patrons can park one time and visit both events.

“In addi­tion to the trol­ley shut­tle, we will have two over­sized vans donated by Life Builders,” White said. ”You can park one time, watch some­thing at 1 p.m. in Sun­bury, shut­tle the barely two miles to Galena and enjoy the start of the 3 p.m. band, then shut­tle back later, enjoy more of Sun­bury and pick up your car.”

White and Drons­field said con­nect­ing the two dis­tinctly dif­fer­ent events with free shut­tle ser­vice would help both vil­lages get a bet­ter draw; they expect more vis­i­tors from around Ohio to visit this year’s twin festivals.

Vol­un­teers are still needed for both events, and ven­dor appli­ca­tions are still open.

Galena Sum­mer­fest infor­ma­tion and ven­dor appli­ca­tions are avail­able at < discovergalenaohio.com >, or search for Galena Sum­mer­fest on Facebook.

Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds infor­ma­tion and ven­dor appli­ca­tions are avail­able at < sunburysizzleandsounds.intuitwebsites.com >, or search for Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds on Facebook.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.