Getting ready for award winning Boom Days Heritage Celebration by John Dersham

Most town and cities have a festival or two every year but we have more than that…we have an award winning festival and I am going to tell you why it is award winning.

Last year Boom Days won the prestigious Southeast Tourism Society’s (STS) fall festival of the year and won the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association’s (AMLA) festival or event of the year.  STS covers the 12 state southeast and AMLA the northern 16 counties in Alabama. There are thousands of festivals each year in the southeast and more than 300 just in North Alabama.

Here is how it works; please note getting nominated is just step number one. Once a festival or event is nominated, a committee closely reviews all of the details of the festival or event. They look at the schedule, they look at the community activity that supports it, and they look at the premise of the festival, such as why there is a festival and what is being celebrated at this particular festival. They look at what makes this one different from the others, what makes it more special than the others and what is the quality of the event, its artists both music and traditional arts and crafts. Does the event create an environment that is conducive to the celebration? The committee that judges these festivals and events gets all the details off Facebook, websites, promotional material and from the nomination form itself. There are so many festivals but only the most special ones can win and Boom Days has won the biggest two awards there are.

Since I am in tourism and part of my job is closely involved with tourism at the state, regional and federal level I get exposed to all the processes and procedures behind festival planning. I also get exposed to everyone else’s festival through media and education seminars in our industry that take samples of  various festivals across the southeast and break them down into detail to establish the do’s and dont's of planning a festival.

Boom Days wins awards because it is extremely well planned and it displays great diversity beginning with it’s one of a kind purpose, after all, Fort Payne is the only Alabama town that was “Boomed” by New Englander’s who came here in 1889 and brought with them money, art, culture, industry and architecture. Boom Days held in Fort Payne’s historic district brings Fort Payne rich history to life for the week long celebration. One of the most important factors when determining an award winning festival comes in its differences from other festivals. Boom Days has the magic of uniqueness, in addition to having what I feel is a higher quality level of art and music from most I have seen. In addition to being award winning festival I have to give a whole lot of credit to the mayor, city council and Boom Days committee headed by Collins Kirby for understanding how to maximize a fairly small budget for a great big event. Please remember many larger cities and towns have budgets many times larger than Boom Days. It is on a relatively small budget that Boom Days is winning acclaim up against the big guys. If you are interested in diversity among music and visual arts using top artists of our local area or region, some with international notoriety, Boom Days offers all of that.

Boom Days this year promises to be fantastic. The week long event starts Sunday, September 14 and ends with the grand Boom Days finale Saturday, September 20.  The schedule is getting filled so please keep an eye on Boom Days Facebook page and the Boom Days website at www.boomdays.org to keep up with the schedule of events and other notes of interest.