Culture

BLUEGRASS MUSIC HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM

311 W. Second Street • bluegrasshall.org

Owensboro first began talking about what’s now the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in 1985. A preview version opened in 1992 in the RiverPark Center, and it opened full time a decade later after the state pumped $3 million into the facility. Finally, in October 2018, the new $15.3 million, three-story Hall of Fame opened. Its state-of-the-art Woodward Theatre has been used as a movie theater and venue for television shows, including filming for PBS programming. The Hall of Fame has taken over the publication of Bluegrass Unlimited, the genre’s leading publication, brought the Official Kentucky State Fiddle Championship to Owensboro as an annual event and created a 13-episode television series, “My Bluegrass Story,” for RFDTV. “This is the only bluegrass hall of fame and museum in the world,” Chris Joslin, the Hall’s executive director, tells visitors. “If bluegrass music has a permanent address, it’s Owensboro, Kentucky.”

Songwriter Series Education

The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum launched “The Nashville Songwriter,” a new concert series, in September 2019. Songwriters perform and talk about their songs and experiences as songwriters. The Hall of Fame offers beginner and advanced music lessons on guitar, mandolin, banjo and fiddle each fall and spring. There are also classes on band development and jamming. Clogging classes are also offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays year round. Each session lasts six weeks.

OWENSBORO CONVENTION CENTER

501 W. Second Street • owensborocenter.com

The Owensboro Convention Center is western Kentucky’s premier meeting space. A full- service facility overlooking the Ohio River in downtown Owensboro, the multi-purpose center now includes an indoor sports arena. Laura Alexander, general manager of the convention center, said the 45,000-square-foot main exhibit hall can be converted into three basketball or futsal courts or nine volleyball courts. The center boasts just under 102,000 square-feet of available space, including a 44,000-plus square-foot exhibition hall, the 8,900-plus square-foot Kentucky Legend® Pier outside overlooking the scenic Ohio River and additional ballroom, meeting and pre-function space.

RIVERPARK CENTER

101 Daviess Street • Riverparkcenter.org

GhostLight Lounge

Named for the tradition of theaters and their long tradition of leaving a “ghost light” — a single bulb — burning whenever a theater is otherwise dark, the RiverPark Center’s GhostLight Lounge opened during the 2021 Friday After 5 season. The facility, located in the former Woodward’s Cafe on the south side of the Atmos Energy Courtyard, is also open during RiverPark Center events. It has a full bar with local bourbon and craft beer, wine, spirits and soft drinks. Food can be brought in from a food truck or another restaurant. RiverPark Center Executive Director Rich Jorn said the GhostLight Lounge is a cozy space where individuals can hang out after a performance. People can also gather in the courtyard outside of the lounge when it isn’t in use and play outdoor games. Tables can be set up for overflow crowds.

Taste of Owensboro

For 25 years, the RiverPark Center has been offering community members easy access to Owensboro-centric restaurants and eateries. Each year, dozens of restaurants are scattered in booths throughout the center to provide a sampling of what they serve for Owensboroans. The Taste of Owensboro also typically has offerings of adult beverages and soft drinks from local restaurants, bars or wineries, as well as live music. The event also features a silent auction, from which the proceeds go toward the RiverPark Center’s educational programs. The event is meant to be a laid back chance for community members to eat, drink and be merry.

Hops on the Ohio

Cody Anderson, an Owensboro native who lives in Bowling Green, wanted to bring a festival to the city to showcase the craft beer industry and how people locally and regionally have begun to support what he called the “craft beer movement.” Thus, Hops on the Ohio was born in 2018 and has been planned each year since then at the RiverPark Center. According to RiverPark officials, the festival is a fundraiser for the performing arts venue. Due to sponsorships by area breweries and companies, 100% of the money from admission ticket sales go to the RiverPark.

ROMP FEST

5710 Kentucky 144 • rompfest.com The annual ROMP Fest offers a great deal of entertainment — from some of the nation’s biggest names in bluegrass to the bevy of vendors, the annual music festival held at Yellow Creek Park offers attendees a weekend of immersive fun.

Food Trucks

“We try to have a variety of options for people,” Chris Joslin, executive director of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum, which stages ROMP, said. “Some fan favorites are there every year ... And we try to add new options every year.” The lineup includes farm-to-table, local and organic food vendors with options ranging from barbecue to vegetarian to vegan. “We have Gene’s Health Food, and we try to have food that people can indulge themselves with,” Joslin said. “But we don’t have carnival food.”

After Party

At midnight, when the headliner exits the main stage in Yellow Creek Park, fans move across the park to the James Lambert Pioneer Village for the After Party. “It runs from midnight to around 1:30 or 2 a.m.,” Joslin said. “Sometimes, it goes longer, but we try to give people time to sleep.” Bands selected for the After Party “have more to do with the vibe they bring,” he said. “They’re not high-profile bands. It’s a great showcase for up-andcoming bands. For the most part, they’re high-energy, progressive bands.”

Vicki Hast

“It’s spectacular. If people don’t know what’s happening here, they’re missing out.”

Rebecca Parrett

“There’s great music, it’s a very calm, enjoyable environment, family friendly, and it’s not overpriced. Some festivals gouge you, but this is just really chill.”

Derek Boarman

“It’s very relaxed, peaceful, even with the amount of people out here. It’s nice to just sit and relax and enjoy some music.”

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FUNFACTS

ROMP is an acronym for “River of Music Party,” because it started in English Park on the banks of the Ohio River.

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The first festival in 2004 drew between 5,000 and 6,000 fans from as far away as Japan and Europe.

In 2006, ROMP moved to Yellow Creek Park in 3

Thruston. “The first time I saw that park, I said it was the most perfect site I’d ever seen for a festival,” said Gabrielle Gray, who was then executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Museum.

ROMP lost money every year through 2008, and for a time, it looked like 2009 might be its last year because the Great Recession was hurting sponsorships. But the board voted to keep it.

In 2018, when Alison Krauss made

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her first appearance at the festival, it drew a record crowd of more than 27,000 fans from 38 states and six countries to Yellow Creek Park.