Kool-Aid Days Goes "Goofy for Grape" in 11th Year

Air Force Fly Over and Buddy Holly Tribute Concert Highlight Over 30 Events

Hastings, Nebraska -- The festival honoring the invention of Nebraska’s Official Soft Drink salutes the perennial favorite flavor of guests at the World's Largest Kool-Aid Stand in the celebration's eleventh year.

Over 30 events will return to Hastings the second weekend in August (8-10) as part of the ever-growing Kool-Aid Days. Edwin Perkins invented the sweet stuff in Hastings 81 years ago. Three brand new events and some special additions to returning events highlight this year's festival.  Two events have had their traditional schedules altered to better accommodate Kool-Aid Days' guests.

Saturday night’s Koncert Kool-Aid in Brickyard Park features Rave On!, a concert salute to rock legend Buddy Holly, preceded by the Many Moccasins Dance Troupe from Nebraska’s own Winnebago Nation, and followed by a large fireworks display.  The return of the Kool-Aid Jammers Boat Races at the City Aquacourt on Friday and the Kardboard Boat Races on Lake Hastings on Sunday is drawing a lot of advance interest.  We expect 22-25 thousand people to head for Hastings to participate in all the events and drink over 1,500 gallons of Kool-Aid from the World's Largest Kool-Aid Stand. The 2006 Kool-Aid Days won the Governor’s Award for Most Outstanding Nebraska Event in a city of 20,000 or more.

Saturday’s festivities will kick off with the second annual Grand Parade, featuring an opening fly over by the Air Force in a KC-135 Stratotanker Jet, the Heartland Hoedowners cloggers from Elkhorn, some of the Many Moccasins Dancers, and of course, the official arrival of Kool-Aid Man to welcome thousands of guests to the festival. The parade will step off at the intersection of 2nd Street and Minnesota Avenue at 9 am. Other entries from all over Nebraska will include classic cars, the cast of Hastings Junior Community Theatre's production of Grease, mascots from sports teams and events, Adam 12 and Mayberry vintage police cars, Shrine units, horses, and Kardboard boats getting ready to race on Sunday. The parade will proceed down 2nd Street to Lincoln Avenue, where it will turn north for three blocks, ending at the Middle School practice field, the site of the World’s Largest Kool-Aid Stand. A reviewing stand at Hastings Avenue will announce each parade unit as it passes.

Schedule Changes
There will be a few changes to long-standing festival events.  We’ve moved the first event of the festival -- the Kool-Aid Golf Scramble at the Elks Country Club in Hastings -- to the Friday before Kool-Aid Days weekend, August 1st, with a noon shotgun start.  The preliminary rounds of the Kwickest Kool-Aid Drinking Contest have been moved from their traditional time and location on Friday night at the Hastings Family YMCA to Saturday morning in Auditorium Park at the intersection of Denver Avenue and 4th Street in downtown Hastings.  This way, contestants can come to Hastings for a single day to participate in both the preliminary and final rounds of the drinking contest.  As well, the Kool-Aid Jammers Boat Races have been moved to a two-hour later start on Friday August 8th, with boats going on display at 4 pm and race heats starting at 5 pm, so more friends and family can come to the Hastings City Aquacourt to cheer on their favorite Jammers racer's boats.

NEW Events Added to the Lineup
New events at this year's Kool-Aid Days include storytelling in Auditorium Park on Saturday afternoon by Prairie Books, hourly showings on Saturday of the Adams County Historical Society's film Connections to the Past, and model rocket launches on Sunday afternoon by THOR (The Heartland Organization of Rocketry).  Storytelling in the Park will follow the Drinking Contest preliminary rounds in Auditorium Park, the historical film showings will be in the Masonic Center auditorium, and the model rocket launch will take place on the shore of Lake Hastings, opposite the Kool-Aid Kardboard Boat Races during the display period for the boats.  Fans of the boat races will be able to see the rocket launches while voting for their favorite boat to win the People's Choice Award.

There will be more rides and games than ever at Kool-Aid Days 2008.  As in 2007, most of the rides are designed to be enjoyed by adults, as well as children, so the whole family can participate in the fun instead of mom and/or dad standing around waiting for the kids.  Highlights include laser tag in the UFO Encounter Arena, a Space Gyro 360 ride, and the return of one of the most popular obstacle courses ever at Kool-Aid Days, the Adrenaline Rush.

Air-Conditioned Trolley Connects It All
Kool-Aid Days guests can park once and take a break from the heat on the air-conditioned nostalgic trolley that will connect all of Saturday's and Sunday's events. On Saturday, a docent from the Adams County Historical Society will be on board to provide narration as the trolley passes through Hastings' historic district, telling the story of Hastings' heritage through its architecture -- a perfect companion to viewing the Connections to the Past film at the Masonic Auditorium.  On Sunday, the trolley will connect the Hastings Museum, Fun in the Sun Car Show, the Kardboard Boat Races at Lake Hastings, and parking lots at the Quality Inn and Hastings High School.  Maps of Saturday's and Sunday's trolley routes can be found on the Kool-Aid Days website at Kool-AidDays.com.

Kool-Aid Days Webcast Around the World
Again this year, internet users around the world will be able to tune in to live webcasts of many of the Kool-Aid Days events. Kool-Aid Days corporate sponsors Glenwood Telecommunications and NTV/FOX will be utilizing a wireless network and television cameras to provide live feeds from the Jammers Boat Races, Grand Parade, Downtown Stage & Kool-Aid Stand, all of Koncert Kool-Aid, and the Kardboard Boat Races.  We’re thrilled to share the excitement of Kool-Aid Days with fans all over the world and we're grateful to Glenwood and NTV for utilizing their shared resources to do so.  We receive emails about the festival from all over the globe and it’s exciting to think that those fans will be able to join in some of the fun.  To view the webcasts, you'll just click on a link on the home pages of Kool-Aid Days, NTV or Glenwood and you'll see all the action.

Downtown Live Stage Entertainment

The Downtown Mainstage features some of the finest up-and-coming talent in the Hastings area and special visiting artists from across Nebraska.  Performances start after the Opening Ceremonies and continue to 4 pm with celebrity hosts from NTV/FOX television stations.

The schedule of performers for this year's Downtown Stage will be posted here next week.  Opening Ceremonies will take place at 10 am, and the Kwickest Kool-Aid Drinking Contest Finals will be held at 3 pm.  Other performers will include the Heartland Hoedowners, the cast of Hastings Community Theatre's Grease, the Maverick Band, and the renowned Andean musical ensemble, Kusi Taki.

Kusi Taki means "Enchanting Music" in the Quechua language of Peru. The music of Kusi Taki originated centuries ago in the high plains of the Andes mountains in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The songs celebrate different aspects of life...spirituality, melancholy, tenderness, nature, and love.  Kusi Taki evolved from a simple desire to play this haunting and truthful music on traditional instruments for those who have never heard it.

The members of Kusi Taki play traditional instruments including the sikus (panpipes), quena (flute), charango (similar to mandolin), bombo (drum), and guitar. Most Andean instruments, particularly the flutes and drums, date back to Incan times or earlier.  Stringed Instruments were initially introduced by the Spanish, and the Andeans later adapted them to local conditions and materials.  Kusi Taki continues to expand its outreach as its members use the music as a teaching tool in schools around the region.  They love to watch the joy in the faces of the children (and the adults) as they experience, for perhaps the first time, the beauty of another culture through its music.

Also performing on the Downtown Mainstage will be the Maverick Band.  In the fall of 1951, several Shrine band musicians from South Central Nebraska and Northwestern Kansas conceived the idea of a regional band. They were looking for a place to play, as many town bands were beginning to lack the personnel to perform quality, old time band music and marches. A press release from 1959 states nearly 1000 musicians have played with the band at one time or another. That number has surely been eclipsed by now. Membership is open to all band musicians that can play, sight-read, and love band music. Guest musicians are welcome to sit in.

The core of the group’s current repertoire is still military and circus marches, but has expanded over the years to include a variety of popular and other music styles to allow for a delightful park concert experience for all listeners. The Maverick band also performs for parades, riding on flatbed trailers instead of marching.

The band received its name from an Omaha World Herald feature writer, Tom Allan, who upon hearing the band had no sponsor and no headquarters, labeled the group “maverick”, like a range animal whose ownership and ancestry are in doubt. The musicians have always denied any similarity between the “music” made by an orphaned calf and that made by the band.

Calling All Kardboard Boat Builders & Mariners

Now in their third year, the Kool-Aid Kardboard Boat Races are a featured event of Kool-Aid Days, and will be held on Lake Hastings Sunday afternoon, August 10th.  Trophies will be awarded in many categories, including speed in a number of age classes, best design, best Kool-Aid Days theme (Goofy for Grape), and even “Most Spectacular Sinking.”  Individuals, ages 7 and up, and teams from the general public and businesses are encouraged to enter.

Cardboard boat races have been held around the country for decades, and we’re quickly rising to join those with the most interesting boats. Rules and entry forms for the Kardboard Boat Races can be downloaded by clicking here or printed copies are available at the Hastings Public Library, the Hastings Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Adams County Visitors Center.

To view a video of the 2006 Kool-Aid Kardboard Boat Races, click here!

Click here for a few hints and tips on building a cardboard boat.

Three of the primary events at Kool-Aid Days are changing schedules for the 2008 festival:

1) The Kool-Aid Days Golf Scramble is going to be played on Friday, August 1st, a week before Festival Weekend.  The Scramble will start with lunch at noon.  Click here for more information.

2) The Kool-Aid Jammers Boat Races are being moved to later in the day on the Friday of Festival Weekend, August 8th.  Boats will go on display at 4 pm and race heats will begin at 5 pm.  We've made this change to beat the heat and make it easier for parents and other family members to attend and cheer on your favorite Jammers boats.  Click here for more information.

3) By popular request, we've moved the Kwickest Kool-Aid Drinking Contest preliminaries to Saturday morning in Downtown Hastings.  The prelims will be held on our new "Second Stage" behind the Hastings City Auditorium in the small park at the intersection of 4th Street and Denver Avenue.  The finals will be held Saturday afternoon on the Downtown Mainstage, as usual, but at 3 pm, an hour later than in previous years.  Click here for more information.