Moonlight Festival starts strong in the daytime
Oct. 21—Even in the light of day, the Moonlight Festival was going strong.
Though no number counts could be available on Saturday afternoon, Somerset Tourism Director Leslie Ikerd was pleased with the turnout for the first part of downtown Somerset's own outdoor fall festival with music, food trucks, art and more.
"It's going great," said Ikerd. "We have got an amazing day. The weather has really showed up and showed out. We've had lots of people from different ages and different communities visiting today and so we're thrilled to have people here.
"Typically, it's family and friends and people that live locally that come up during the first part of the day, but around 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. is starts to fill up and by 6 p.m., it's usually going," she said.
One early performer was singer-songwriter Daniel Cain of Stanford, who brought a familiar local face on stage to play with him — musician and Jarfly Brewing Co. co-founder Daniel Stroud.
"Moonlight Festival was absolutely awesome," said Cain after his mid-afternoon set. "I'm very impressed by Somerset. I really feel like right now, they're one of the best cities in Kentucky for supporting original music, especially for the size, and helping elevate artists like me to the next level."
While there was plenty of fun to be had on the streets of Somerset, there was some controversy to start the day. Because of a wedding scheduled at the Virginia Theater, a section of East Mt. Vernon Street from Central Avenue to just west of the theater saw the street blocked off — and that section contained Somerset's Yellow Bird Bakery; its owners made a post on Facebook stating that they were "disappointed and once again hurt" by the reduced access from the rest of the festival and that they spent "hundreds of dollars in preparation for the event" only to get barricaded from it.
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck responded by making a social media post of his own stating that he went to the store to apologize for the situation and support them himself, and observation of the business showed a steady number of customers visit there throughout the day after the initial post garnered significant support for the bakery on social media.
"We set it up where we wanted to make sure that no business was restricted, so we had to leave an opening for the Virginia as part of the contract with them to rent it (for the wedding); we tried to leave it fluid where anybody that was in that space, people could get to it easily," said Ikerd. "... Obviously, we don't want anybody to feel excluded. The point of having festivals is to (bring people) to downtown because we're proud of downtown. ... We're proud of all (our downtown businesses)."
Keck told the Commonwealth Journal that it wasn't the city's intent for anyone to feel neglected or excluded.
"We're trying to make a lot of things work," he said, noting the scheduling of the wedding at the same time as the festival. "I just said (I was) sorry and I meant it. I love small business. I want to support anybody who invests in downtown. We'll put our heads together and try to figure out a way to make it better."
Despite all of that, Keck was enjoying the atmosphere — and turnout — for this year's event on the whole.
"The food is good, the music is good and the community is good," said Keck. "We continue to make it free for the community. ... We want it to be good for our small businesses. I think community is more than just a place, it's a feeling. If you look around, you see diversity, not just ethnic or gender (diversity) but generational diversity. There are kids everywhere, there are seniors down here. This is community at its finest."
See more coverage of this year's Moonlight Festival in Tuesday's Commonwealth Journal.
