The origins of this week’s Rison in the Fall festival can be traced back to an idea by the late Bill Ripling, the former mayor of Rison. Roy Phillips, who served as the lead promoter of the Rison in the Fall Festival for about 30 years, said Ripling wanted to do something special to celebrate the City of Rison’s 100th birthday after it was formally incorporated in August 1890. He appointed a committee to create an event and a two-day celebration was held that year.
However, Phillips said people liked the celebration so much that they wanted to do it again, and the next thing he knew, it became an annual event. Phillips, along with the current festival organizer Douglas Boultinghouse, talk about the history and the future of the Rison in the Fall Festival. The festival saw success for many years. However, interest in the festival began to wane. First the street dance was eliminated, and eventually the pageant, which was one of the festival’s biggest draws. Even the barbeque cook-off, which had become the backbone of the festival, dwindled to only a handful of competitors. In preparation for the 30th anniversary of the Rison in the Fall Festival that next year in 2019, Phillips enlisted the help of Douglas Boultinghouse, who had some connections to the Nashville music scene. Boultinghouse reached out to Tayla Lynn and Tre Twitty, the grandchildren of country music stars Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty, to headline the 30th anniversary festival in 2019 and it was a huge success. Since then, there has been an increased focus on entertainment. The episode (and past episodes) highlight the entertainers scheduled to perform Saturday including Matt Wilkerson, Marybeth Byrd, BIAS, Rissi Palmer and Charles Esten!

Ver todos los episodios