RailGrass 

 

 Realizing a Goal of Creating a
 

Heritage Festival for the Region housed In Downtown Kingsport
with regional activities based in Downtown Kingsport

The railroad was the basis for the creation of modern economy and livelihood in
Downtown Kingsport and the surrounding region as well. We wish to
Celebrate, Educate and Create a sense of how and why we are what we are today
and why the railroad is so important to us in our endeavors

Prepared: Rail Grass Committee of the Downtown Kingsport Association 
 

Date: April 1, 2010 

Partners:

Downtown Kingsport Association:       Lead Organization          Mark Freeman, Secretary

Local Railroad Clubs                                                                               Gary Cameron

Regional Crafts Chair                                                                              Denise Freeman

Regional Arts Chair                                                                                 Mark Freeman

Photography Competition Chair (Fall Event)                                 Ann Penley

Food Vending                                                                                           Mark Freeman

Railroad displays and memorabilia                                                    Gary Cameron    

Railroad based vending                                                                        Tammy Brown 

Heritage Music – Bluegrass / Mountain Music                                 Tom Keller

Mainstream Music                                                                                  Greg Hauk

Railroad Heritage Storytelling                                                             Gary Cammeron

Heritage Event – Chili Cook-off                                                           Deb Waggoner

Tours to Railroad and Coal related Sites                                          TBA

RailGrass Concept:

The celebration of the Modern History of Downtown Kingsport and the Region that recognizes the importance of the Railroad in the re-chartering of Kingsport as a City as well as the Music and Storytelling that created much of the social infrastructure that provided the enjoyment our ancestors realized before the days of Radio and TV. Heritage based festivals are one of the most interesting and educational events a City can support.

The component parts of the Rail Grass Festival as initially conceived are as follows:

Regional Crafts

Regional Arts           

Photography Competition

Railroad displays and memorabilia

Railroad based vending

Railway Activities / Excursions

Heritage Event - Bluegrass / Mountain Music                           

Heritage Event - Railroad Heritage Storytelling

Heritage Event - Granny’s Gravy Cook-off

Food Vending

Children’s Activities

Contemporary Entertainment

The Downtown Kingsport Fall Event that has a 32 year history started out as the Downtown Kingsport Arts and Crafts Festival and enjoyed many years of success as a traditional festival featuring Arts and Crafts of all kinds. Several years ago there was a realization that the festival needed new emphasis and activity. A shorter name was discussed that was a summation of the intent of the festival. While many components over the years dealt with heritage the festival was mostly about Arts and Crafts Vendors with entertainment and children’s venues. Downtown Kingsport Association was the home for the festival since the beginning and had a desire to see the festival grow and build relevance. Downtown Kingsport Association has been a source of creative and flexible initiatives for many years. The ability to adjust to the desires of the community has been a goal of the Downtown Kingsport Association (DKA).

Observations of the events and activities that appear to realize the greatest success in Kingsport indicates a need for heritage based activities. These have been successful on the national level. When a friend of DKA approached the organization with possible support for a Railroad based initiative from the local Railroad interest groups there was an instant realization that a major portion of our heritage had failed to be realized. The reality of Kingsport’s modern history was the Railroad. The Industrialists that were the fathers of this modern history all were with the Railroad or were following the opportunities brought by the railroad.

Realization of the regional interest in the Railroad and associated historical interests as well as the attraction of Railroad based displays, attractions and excursions helped solidify the concept. The Santa Train is a good example of this support and interest. Downtown Kingsport Association is accumulating support from the local organizations as well as moving forward with mobilization of the team to make the RailGrass festival a success. Railroad based components are a mix of physical displays such as model railroads, called sectional railroads, memorabilia swaps, historical objects displays, railroad cars and larger artifacts, historical storytelling, and historical displays.

The other major historical component that always has an impact on a social system is the music of the era. Looking at the early 1900’s a regional music involving the derivative music of the Irish, Gospel, and Southern influence of the African American Community leads to a collection of music that is best described in the Bluegrass Genre. Thus Rail and Grass. The name is of a type that is used nationally to indicate the intent of a festival. This will help to make the concept easily understood. Kingsport has significant resources regionally to support this effort. East Tennessee State University has a stellar Bluegrass program that is establishing a stronger presence in Kingsport through the Main Arts Village Project; Carter Fold was and is the historical source for the early mountain music presence and The Birthplace of Country Music in Bristol rounds out the resources DKA will leverage in the Music Initiative.

In congress with the Heritage aspects of the festival is the desire to attract citizens to a venue that may not initially be an attractor some entertainment venues will be for a more mainstream attendee.  The major entertainment venues (concerts) may be sets of heritage music with a more mainstream but related set of performers. Such as a Bluegrass act followed by a newer fusion of Bluegrass and blues/rock that takes the history and shows the morphosis of the genre from primitive to today’s culturally significant version. 
 

Entertainment in other areas will include competitions, games, demonstrations and visual displays. DKA has a desire to create a product that starts and gets its support from the local community but can grow to a larger regional attraction. Using Ashville, N.C. as a study the redevelopment of the Downtown followed the same evolutionary path. We would promote primarily in Kingsport then to the Tri- Cities in General and with the growth and refining of the product promote on out to the region and beyond. The initial success and promotional dollars must stay local first.

Synopsys of components: Arts, Crafts and Photography

Regional Crafts: This would be a basic craft vending scenario incorporating handmade crafts, packaged food products and similar items. The base area would be a 10’ x 10’ tent with 4’ between tents. The Crafts area would be a distinct area with a cluster of like vendors.

Regional Arts: The Arts area would be a section of the festival area adjacent to the Main Art Center located in the Gem Theatre and at the core of the Main Arts Village. The Arts area would include Artists as Vendors and Demonstrators of Art production. The Arts area would support local and regional Artists as many disciplines as possible. Those being Dance, Music, Fine Arts, Sculpture, Performance and fusions of those areas listed. Major emphasis would be placed on the promotion of the Arts area.

Photography Competition: There is a current photographic competition that takes place each year with two categories. The first being Nature Photography and second being Portrait Photography. With the Railroad theme a possibility exists for a category for Railroad Photography as well as the possibility for historical and professional Railroad photography exhibits. There would be a coordination effort to look at the placement of the exhibits to coordinate with other Railroad exhibits.

Synopsys of components: Railroad:

Railroad Displays and Memorabilia: A primary attraction of the RailGrass festival is the display of memorabilia. There are many areas of opportunity within this component. 
 

            Photos

            Journals

            Tools

            Implements – Lanterns, etc

            Rail Cars / Locomotives

            Sectional Railroads – Models of various scales

 

 

 

 

 

            Model Trains

            Work Uniforms and Costumes

            Working Demonstrations

 The railroad section would locate on

Main Street from Broad to  Shelby Street

. There is a proximity consideration with this location as other components will interface with the railroad tracks adjacent to

Main Street

. This component would be a combination of a Railroad Swap Meet, Historical Memorabilia, and demonstrations. Local Railroad Based Organizations are being interfaced with to manage this component.

 

. There is a proximity consideration with this location as other components will interface with the railroad tracks adjacent to . This component would be a combination of a Railroad Swap Meet, Historical Memorabilia, and demonstrations. Local Railroad Based Organizations are being interfaced with to manage this component.

 

from Broad to . There is a proximity consideration with this location as other components will interface with the railroad tracks adjacent to . This component would be a combination of a Railroad Swap Meet, Historical Memorabilia, and demonstrations. Local Railroad Based Organizations are being interfaced with to manage this component.

 

from Broad to . There is a proximity consideration with this location as other components will interface with the railroad tracks adjacent to . This component would be a combination of a Railroad Swap Meet, Historical Memorabilia, and demonstrations. Local Railroad Based Organizations are being interfaced with to manage this component.

 

from Broad to . There is a proximity consideration with this location as other components will interface with the railroad tracks adjacent to . This component would be a combination of a Railroad Swap Meet, Historical Memorabilia, and demonstrations. Local Railroad Based Organizations are being interfaced with to manage this component.

Railroad Based Vending: This component is made up of various vendors focusing on Railroad memorabilia and model railroad products. This may be a blended component in that some model railroad displays, story telling and demonstrations may occur within a Vendors area. The component size would be a 10’ x 10’ tent space with a 4’ transaction zone.

Railroad Activities /Excursions: The activities that are anticipated involve the area of education and information about our Railroad Heritage. The venue for this would be indoor and outdoor locations in downtown that would accommodate Railroad Historical Documentaries running continuously through the event, as well as scheduled “Storytelling” sessions by local and national Storytellers on the subject of Railroad Life and the experiences of individuals with the Railroad. See Heritage Events later in the document.

Excursions fall into two categories. The first would be local and could be simply rides on the spurs adjacent to Clinchfield/Main Streets with either locomotives and cars/cabooses, work platforms used to ride rail workers to specific locations to bringing in a major exhibit like “Tommy the Tank” or restored cars of various types. Along with these actual rail based activities we would bring in model railroad trains that could be ridden by children on the street as has been done many times before in previous festivals. The second excursion type involves actual Rail Excursions either locally based or based out of town and accessed through Motor Coach Tour Lines. This would likely be a Sunday activity that would culminate the RailGrass Festival. Joe Fuller of Gate City has been contacted about the possibility of assisting with the coordination of Bus Tours to Railroad Sites around the region. There is a recent history of success with these around Southwest Virginia. By allowing these to depart from Kingsport creates a marketing opportunity for substantial tourism based in Kingsport’s Downtown.

 Railroad Venues Outline:

             Venues                      Storytellers     Local individuals with personal stories

                                                                         Local Railroad Enthusiasts’

                                                                         Professional Railroad Storytellers

                                                                                     -Famous Wrecks

                                                                                     -Railroad Legends

                                                                                     -RFQ in January

                                                 Film                  Santa Train at 50 (Charter)

                                                                         Historical Movies/Documentaries

                                                                         Local Individual contributions

                                                  Photos                        Historical

                                                                                     -1947 Freedom Train

                                                                                     -1949 Train of Tomorrow

                                                                                     -Jan 27 1946 Collision behind

                                                                                       Netherland Inn

                                                                                     -Famous Wreaks

                                                                                     - Railroad

                                                                        Photography Contest 
  

-Local / Regional Railroad              photography

                                                 Exhibits           CSX Safety Booth

                                                                         Tennessee Rail Passenger Assoc.

                                                                         Modular Railroads

                                                                                     -Lonesome Pine

                                                                                     - North Carolina Chapter

                                                                         Watauga Valley Chapter

                                                                                     -Dining Car behind Chamber

                                                                                     -Coaches

                                                                                     -Book – Clinchfield Railroad…

                                                 Tours               Excursions

                                                                                     -Tours to Three River Rambler

                                                                                     - Great Smokey Mountain Rail

                                                                         Tours

                                                                                      -S. W. Va. Tours of various sites

                                                                                      - Tennessee various sites

                                                 Art                   Themed Show relating to Railroads

                                                                         Coordinate with Main Art Center

                                                                         Coordinate with Arts Council

                                                 Music             Coordinate with Carter Fold – Johnny Cash Family

                                                 Coordinate with Blue Grass Venue

Synopsys of components: Heritage:

Bluegrass and mountain music: The major entertainment during the festival activities has been envisioned to take the form of a progression of Heritage Music spanning the centuries and decades. Music venues that will feature our Celtic and African American heritage and the links forward, early Mountain Music and finally the culmination of the latter is Bluegrass. The ability to view these as educational as well as catering to the fans of each genre. The real opportunity is to have the nightly music venues realize the fusion of all these into very mainstream music that caters to the masses. An example is an act we have had before, Sam Bush, that takes Bluegrass, Blues and some Rock & Roll and create a very high energy music that has mass appeal. This mixture will create something for all and will help insure the success of the RailGrass Festival.

Railroad Heritage Storytelling: This we would hope to be a partnering effort with the National Storytelling Center in Jonesborough.  The premise is simple in that there are local and national Storytellers that would be called upon to share stories of Railroad Life, Railroad experiences, Railroad History and Impacts on the Region.  Another component part of this venue would be the recording of local individuals telling personal Railroad stories. Stories from individuals would be orchestrated into a “Karaoke” type setting. There are still a number of our regions population that were around during the early days or have stories passed down from relatives and friends that have gone on about when the Railroad was highly influential and essential in our prosperity and livelihoods. Before the time of major trucking and after the horse and wagon.

Granny’s Gravy Cook-off: Every Festival should strive to insert something of a local nature. The concept behind this event is to partner with a local Chain of Restaurants such as Hardees’s or Cracker Barrel (known for good biscuits) and possible Lodge Cast Iron to create an event that would bring out the local talent for Homemade Gravy and Biscuits. The thought behind the biscuit being from a commercial source is for consistency in the competitive phase of the event. This would be a Saturday morning venue. There would be categories of gravy. There would be the ability of each contestant to sell gravy and biscuits for charitable purposes. The contestants could be individuals, church groups, non-profit groups and possibly commercial entities if country type gravy is an important part of their menu. The categories would involve types such as Sausage Gravy, Sawmill Gravy and other locally known recipes.  This could be a regional event.

Heritage and Main Stream Music Venues 

Tom Keller – In Progress

Synopsys of components: Festival support and miscellaneous entertainment

Food vendors: An assortment of food vendors would be required with emphasis on the Downtown Kingsport Hospitality Community. The primary components would involve several food types from snacks, cold or frozen items, entrée items, beverages, to specialty regional foods. The offering would be adjusted by local tastes and trends to best serve the vendors and the public.

Children’s activities would involve the typical offering of inflatable’s, educational crafts, interactive games, heritage stories for children, and similar venues.