It's that time of year again.

It's time for the rapture, the arts and music festival.

We're here in Elkhart.

I have my friend Liz with me.

Thank you for joining me today.

It's a beautiful day today.

It is a beautiful.

I hope it gets better for the festival too, right?

I very much hope so.

Weather was not our best friend last year.

We still was a beautiful festival and had a lot of people out.

But yeah, the rain kind of deterred a lot of people from coming.

But it does happen.

Rain or shine.

It does happen.

Right or shine, right?

Definitely bring your umbrella, poncho, all of that.

The stage is covered.

So all of our musicians are protected from that aspect.

And then we do have a couple of shelters that you're able to kind of hide into if needed.

Now, you guys have been doing this for a number of years, over four decades, right?

46 years.

Six years.

Insane.

It's the longest running festival in Elkhart.

So we get to hold that title that.

That's awesome.

So I know you guys have grown over the years, right?

And now we have this beautiful space.

I see that you guys have taken out some of the things that used to be here, right?

We did.

So for the longest time we had benches in our band shell and it just gets a little crowded.

People were wanting to get up and dance and groove and do all their things.

So we've done a little bit different layout this year.

The stage will be up on the north side, and it will give a chance for people to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets and all that.

We'll have the picnic tables available if you don't want to lug everything with you, but it's going to be a really good time.

I'm really excited to see people get more interactive with the band, and that's some of the change.

But really, let's talk about what makes this festival so wonderful and why people keep coming back every year.

It really is the conglomeration of everything.

So along with our eight bands that we'll have performing, we have over 50 artisan vendors and makers and crafters that will be out here.

And then we have our food court area with over 20 food trucks.

So you're going to eat.

You're going to be good here.

You have the barbecue.

We have breakfast swings.

We will on Saturday city pizza for breakfast, right.

You're really good.

We've got the puzzles and pizzas.

Yeah, but we are adding a new component this year over.

We're expanded so much.

We're back over on the Lundquist Bicentennial side of Island Park, where we will have our family zone.

They have their own family entertainment stage area.

Oh, really?

So what happens in the family zone?

So over there is more of our, like, interactive crafts.

So you bring the kiddos, you have the bigger family we have Elkhart Art League will be over there.

Honeypot Studios, we'll be doing a couple of craft items.

Growing kids is our main family zone sponsors, so they'll have an area where you can do a lot of things with them.

This year we added a couple of carnival rides.

I hate to call them that because they're not like the intense ones.

We have the giant slide that you get to go down, a little fun house to walk through.

Yeah, and then five five Star Life will be out here and they will have their climbing wall, it seems like.

How do you fit it all in here?

Right.

All the people who come.

How many people usually come out for this?

We usually average between 20 and 30,000, depending on a lot.

It is a lot in two days.

Not all at once.

And they are big days.

On Friday we do start at noon.

Food courts will be open, the vendors will be open and then live music starts at five.

Okay.

And then on Saturday it is a full day, 10 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

we've incorporated we do our weekly farmer's market here in Elkhart.

Yeah, normally over at Curly Park just off of NIB Co Parkway, but we're going to bring them over and let them experience Rhapsody.

So that's all of our farmers market vendors with their fresh produce and everything will be over here.

So yeah, it's going to be a really big day.

That is now for those who haven't been to this space before.

How do we get on to the island?

Because I know I was crushing the bridge and I was like, how does this work?

The only not allowed to drive on island.

Please don't.

You will get turned around, but we do have several parking spots available.

If you're coming from the north side, you can enter off of Beardsley.

There is parking at our high dive pavilion along with air.

Excel lets us use their overflow parking.

Okay, great.

We have one class, Bicentennial Park, with their parking lot, Beacon Aquatic Centers right there, so there's plenty of public parking around that area.

And then on the west side, right behind Main Street is another public parking spot.

Ada is right off of Sycamore Street on the west side, so you have some extra resources available to get people parking lot.

And then we do have our shuttles.

Once you hit any of those bridges, we will put you on a shuttle and get you where you need to be.

There you go.

So people need to bring their lawn chair or their blanket to hang out here.

But you have food here.

We have food money because you're in your money with those vendors, I'm sure.

Yes.

And like you said, there will be breakfast, they'll be lunch.

There will be dinner available.

And it's a family environment and it's free.

It is free.

Yes.

Mean.

That's amazing.

Thanks to our sponsors who are doing something like that.

So we have plenty of sponsors.

Legacy Heating and Air is one of them.

Jayco - Waste Away Group donates a lot of in-kind possibilities for us.

And then like I said, growing kids with our family zones.

That's amazing.

What a wonderful way to bring the community together.

And like you said, this is one of the biggest things that happens in Elkhart.

This is kind of or in Elkhart, Elkhart City, okay County, we do get a little competition from the county fair and things like that within the city limits.

This is our longest running.

One of our biggest people look forward to it every year.

And definitely being able to add more activities for them to do has been.

And it keeps growing, I know, right?

I love it, so sooner or later we're going to be in the water.

No, I mean you do have our electro fishing that are down there.

So they have their little boat.

So that is her public works department, okay.

And they are kind of like our fish education people.

Sure.

So they go in, they have tanks that they set up.

You can interact.

They talk about the fish, the ones that are actually living in our Elkhart River, Saint John River.

They have their boat out there that they will drive around and let people interact with them.

So yeah, it's really very now that's really cool too, I love that.

So we got education wrapped into this too.

Yeah.

You're gonna learn something when you come to in all of the vendors to how do we find out about the lineup, or do you want to talk about the lineup today of all the different musicians that we have, you said there's eight different musicians.

Kicks off on Friday at five.

We have Memphis Underground.

That takes the stage at six.

I mean, we're like central here.

Yeah.

And then followed up by King B and the Stingers, which is a blues band actually out of Bloomington.

They were at our Blues festival in September, and the crowd fell in love with them.

And I was like, you're coming, you're coming back.

And then on Saturday, right at 10 a.m., Caitlin Foust we'll be singing over at the farmers market, Levi Lambert.

Jack will then kick things off on the main stage at noon.

Okay.

And then the 2:00 will be our test of time, which is Dave Kilgore, which is one of our local favorites.

That plays a lot of our local establishments.

And then we have Bentley, formerly known as blame, not the bards or kind of Irish folk that will be coming out.

6:00 will be Darrell Buchanan, another local favorite with all of your favorite that he's sayings.

And then we're really excited because this hour, 8:00, our headliner has been coming up a lot, and it's Teague Holt and the Lonesome Pine.

So been getting a lot of recognition just locally here in the area.

He's currently down in Indy doing great things getting these are all local and regional artists that you guys are bringing in here, which is really great to showcase that it is.

And we want to boost our economy both on that side.

But also you want your favorites.

You want the people you know and see and love and be able to come support them as well.

All the more reason to get here.

Now.

When is this happening?

Oh yeah, the dates.

So next Friday, June 12th, we is our start date and then continues on to at Saturday, June 13th.

And how can people get information if they want to see like the vendors and the different times that they need to be here for the different.

Yeah.

So our Facebook page, which is at Elkhart Parks, both Facebook and Instagram will be running everything you need to know now and then about our musicians, our artists, and also what to bring, not to bring.

Sure.

And then always our website, which is City of Elkhart in backslash parks and we'll give you all that information.

Perfect.

All right.

Well thank you so much, Liz.

I hope you guys have an amazing turnout.

And it's going to be perfect weather, right?

I'm so excited.

It is.

And if it's not, you guys are still coming out.

Bring your panchos.

We will be out here, rain or shine.

Believe me, I love it.

Thanks.