Tall Stacks
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Tall Stacks, formally known as the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival, is a festival held every three or four years in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, which celebrates the city's heritage of the riverboat. The sixth edition was held on October 4 through October 8, 2006. The festival typically features a number of vintage and replica steamboats from across the eastern United States, who dock along the Ohio River shoreline in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington and Newport, Kentucky.
[edit] History
The first Tall Stacks festival was held in October 1988 as a part of Cincinnati's bicentennial celebration. Fourteen riverboats made appearances in the three-day festival, which included tours of the boats, cruises, and races between rivals Delta Queen and Belle of Louisville--a renewal of their annual race during the Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. More than 700,000 people attended.
Subsequent festivals:
- 1992, when the event expanded to four days. Attendance increased to 800,000, which was the largest attendance for any event in Cincinnati history to date.
- 1995, when the schedule was moved up a year to prevent a near-conflict with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The event expanded to five days and 19 riverboats. The Kentucky cities added a Civil War re-enactment to the festivities, and attendance increased again to 850,000, a new record.
- 1999, though attendance was down, Tall Stacks '99 drew 660,000 and was named the nation's top tourism event by the American Bus Association. Nineteen riverboats again travelled to the festival.
- 2003, when the festival took on its current formal name and drew a record 900,000 visitors. "Theme cruises" were an added attraction, such as wine tasting cruises, Cincinnati Zoo cruises, and more. Musical acts included Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, The Jayhawks, Delbert McClinton, John Hammond, Nickel Creek, B.B. King, Los Lobos, Ricky Skaggs, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and more than 150 other national, regional, and local bands.
[edit] 2006 festival
As of April 2006, 17 riverboats are scheduled to be a part of the festival, including the Delta Queen, Belle of Louisville, General Jackson, Natchez, Mississippi Queen, and Majestic. On-shore entertainment will be announced in the summer.
On the Newport, Kentucky side of the river at the site of the Newport Barracks are a series of American Civil War displays, which teaches about Military life during this period. The US Army Corps of Engineers has displays about the river.
