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Americana music mixer

Courtesy photo. The Hillbenders will be playing at the Altoona First Frontier Festival July 28.

Telling a story through song defines Americana and bluegrass musical traditions and Blair County leaders hope an upcoming music festival will entice visitors to Blair County — once the “first frontier” of the national western expansion after the American Revolutionary War.

The Altoona First Frontier Festival happens July 28 at the Railroaders Memorial Museum and features Americana music, food trucks, craft beers, wine, and other artisans.

“We get to tell our story through song and visitors get to experience something historically accurate and authentic to our community,” said Stephen McKnight, president and CEO of The Altoona Blair County Development Corporation. “Long before the railroad, our region here at the foot of the Allegheny Front was the ‘First Frontier’ for many pioneers moving westward. Our mountains required innovations in travel such as the Pennsylvania Canal and later the Horseshoe Curve to conquer our mountains.”

ABCD’s re-branding of the region as the “First Frontier,” sparked the idea of an annual music festival “that links our authentic local history with the story-telling music associated with traditional bluegrass now Americana-new grass.”

ABCD pitched the idea to Altitude Entertainment Events and Promotions, a sister organization of the Altoona Mirror, to assist with logistics and talent acquisition. ABCD is helping to promote the festival in many ways, including production of a short video and creation of marketing collateral and messaging.

“Music events are great opportunities to bring new people into our region. Event goers may be potential investors, they may locate a business or could be the next great employee for our existing businesses,” McKnight said. “Americana-New Grass music, like that we will be dancing to at the First Frontier Festival, has been rising in popularity in recent years and now appeals to a large cross section of people, including younger professionals throughout the Mid-Atlantic. We want them to come to visit, enjoy the event, have a good experience and maybe considering staying and investing here. Working to turn visitors into investors, into rooted residents and employees is very important.”

Today, people choose where they want to live and work much more easily than in the past, said McKnight. Greater mobility is assisted by technology and market conditions.

“Providing as many opportunities as possible for people to visit a community firsthand has always been the goal in economic development. Events like the First Frontier Festival can be promoted through social media and other marketing channels much easier than in the past … Attracting talent to our community is a major need and this event is a part of that overall effort.”

Those efforts resulted in strong out-of-state and corporate sales, said Ray Eckenrode, general manager of Altitude Entertainment and The Altoona Mirror.

Festival gates open at 1 p.m. with RailTowne, Mama Corn, The Commonheart and The Hillbenders performing respectively at 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. for about 75-minutes each.

“Our plan in booking bands was to make it musically eclectic,” said Will Jones, production and promotions manager of Altitude Entertainment Events and Promotions. “We wanted to feature bands that were local, regional and national and we did that.”

“A mini-food truck festival” features regional selections Rosie’s Pierogies of Bellefonte, brick oven pizza, pulled pork and brisket sandwiches courtesy of Doan’s Bones Barbeque, State College; wings, steak subs, and loaded fries from Klavuhn’s, Bedford; local favorites hot dogs and hamburgers from Doug’s Dawgs, Hollidaysburg; dark chocolate coconut balls and gluten-free, egg-free brownies from Primal Eats, Altoona Vegan; gourmet comfort food from Taste Buds, Hollidaysburg; Backwoods Kettle Corn, Windber; and OutoftheShell, Altoona, provides German copper kettle-style roasted almonds, pecans, cashews and mixes. The first 500 attendees through the gates get a pair of Altitude Entertainment sunglasses, a $20 value. Altoona First Savings Bank plans to give away a ukulele autographed by all the festival bands.

Advance-purchase VIP area tickets cost $50 with a limited supply remaining. Overall, ticket sales are halfway to goal as of the first days of July.

“You go to a concert to see a band you love. You go to festivals to discover new music and check out bands, and types of music, that might be new to you,” explained Eckenrode. “In that regard, festival ticket sales are a whole different animal than selling tickets to, say, Kenny Rogers at the Jaffa. Our general sales have been good, but not great, which we expected with a first-year festival. Altoona is a notorious last-minute town so we feel the best is yet to come there.”

The community’s businesses have stepped up with “fantastic” corporate sales support.

“Our business community has really embraced the event, buying ticket packages for employees or customers,” Eckenrode said. “That will help us get a lot of curious people there the first year and we’re confident once we get them there, we’ll be able to get them back in future years. I can’t say enough about the way our title sponsor (Altoona First Savings Bank) has embraced the festival and become an active partner with us, really pushing the nonprofit aspect of the show where we’ll have all the proceeds from our T-shirt sales and a portion from our refreshment sales benefiting the Blair County Arts Foundation.”

Staff writer Patt Keith can be reached at 814-949-7030.

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