Sunbury Sizzle & Sounds

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

In early 2011 Theresa Drons­field, owner of the dis­tinc­tive Giant Lemon­ade Cup con­ces­sion, approached mem­bers of the Vil­lage of Sun­bury Parks & Recre­ation Com­mit­tee about adding a fes­ti­val to the village’s sum­mer event agenda. The vil­lage already has three flea mar­ket events — Memo­r­ial Day, Inde­pen­dence Day and Labor Day — but Drons­field envi­sioned some­thing dif­fer­ent that would draw a larger crowd; some­thing focused on music and food.

Fol­low­ing sev­eral vis­its to Parks and Rec and Sun­bury Vil­lage Coun­cil, and council’s approval to move ahead, a date was set and Sunbury’s first Siz­zle & Sounds was born.

It didn’t take long for every­one to notice that the first Siz­zle & Sounds was sched­uled for the same day as the 2011 Galena Sum­mer­fest. It could have been a dis­as­ter — two fes­ti­vals on the same day only a few miles apart; but Drons­field and Galena Sum­mer­fest chair Jane White, who had never met, decided to join forces, share pro­mo­tional costs and con­nect the two fes­ti­vals via a free shuttle.

The mar­riage of last year’s Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds and Galena Sum­mer­fest turned out to be so suc­cess­ful – 8,000 Cen­tral Ohio folks attended each event – that it made sense to sched­ule them on the same day again this year.

Drons­field said last year was a learn­ing expe­ri­ence that cre­ated changes in this year’s Sat­ur­day, August 25, Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds. The Kids Zone will now be on the west side of Sun­bury Square, the adult stage and Beer Gar­den has been moved to the east side of the square near the Fire­house Tav­ern and Chase Bank.

“We’ve expanded the Kids Zone with the stage, and added a pet­ting zoo and bounce houses,” Drons­field said. “The Kids Zone stage will fea­ture music by OH-YESS and End­less Recess.

“But our biggest news is we’re fly­ing in two alumni to per­form on our main stage,” Drons­field con­tin­ued. “Not only will our very own Ryan Notes be fly­ing in from New York City to per­form, we will also have a spe­cial guest fly­ing in from Las Vegas Nevada — Sunbury’s own Joel Heitman.”

In addi­tion to Ryan Notes and Heit­man, Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds will fea­ture per­for­mances by the 2012 Big Wal­nut High School 15-Minutes of Fame Con­test win­ners, the Big Wal­nut area’s favorite local band South­wynd, Isis Yazmeen, and Lt. Dan’s New Legs.

Also per­form­ing will be Lori Fer­gu­son, Mandy King, Dori-Kay Strom, The Usual Sus­pects, Simba Jor­dan and Fash­ion Disaster.

“We have a huge increase in food ven­dors this year, no dupli­ca­tion and all pretty much local food ven­dors,” Drons­field said. “No beer will be sold until the Kids Zone closes down, and all beer will be served respon­si­bly and monitored.”

Drons­field said the 2012 Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds is expected to top last year’s atten­dance; and in addi­tion to the open air trol­ley con­nect­ing both events, two large air-conditioned vans have been added to the shut­tle sched­ule thanks to Life Builders.

“We invite the Big Wal­nut com­mu­nity to come out and enjoyed both fes­ti­vals,” Drons­field said. “It promises to be an excit­ing day with award-winning bar­be­cue, tons of food, drinks and desserts as well as count­less vendors.”

Drons­field did note that a $1 dona­tion would be accepted at the gate to help off­set Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds costs.

The 2012 Sun­bury Siz­zle & Sounds is a Vil­lage of Sun­bury Parks & Recre­ation Fes­ti­vals & Events Com­mit­tee event.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 22 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.