Dreamland Music Fest slated for June 19
Jun. 11—Memories of the way it used to be at Dreamland are in the lyrics of Rick Ferrell's song that he wrote about his memories as a child going to Dreamland Pool here in Portsmouth.
It is from this song that Ferrell started the Dreamland Music Fest seven years ago. The Dreamland Music Fest is set once again for this summer, having to cancel last year due to COVID, this will make it the sixth annual music fest.
"The event is to be held Saturday, June 19 at Tracy Park in Portsmouth," Donna Gee said. "It is the sixth annual event and for the first time, Rick is able to do the fest with free admissions. He comes back every year to do the festival as a fundraiser for the Portsmouth Kiwanis and Post 23 American Legion with all proceeds going to those two entities."
This year, the music festival will have a food vendor, 'Smokin Joes'. The fest will also feature several types of vendors and guests are encouraged to bring a chair due to limited seating in the park. The show starts at 5 p.m. with five acts coming from Nashville and two local acts, with the main event being Rick Ferrell.
"Nolan Sotillo, Nik and Sam twin sisters, Alden Rest, Bella Skye who is Rick Ferrell's daughter, our local acts are Mikey Mike and the Big Unit and Josiah Whitley," Gee said. "The event will last until 11 p.m. and Rick Ferrell will be performing in the middle, somewhere around 7:30 p.m."
Gee shared Ferrell wrote the number one song of the decade in all genres of music, recorded by Tim McGraw, with the name of the song, 'Something Like That'. She said that he has written other number one hits for artists such as Martina McBride and others.
"Rick has always been about giving back, he loves helping children. He makes no money from this, and chose the two local charities," Gee said. "he is so happy they are able to do it this year free of charge to everyone."
Speaking with Ferrell himself, about why they started the Dreamland Music Fest, "We started it for a couple of reasons, we wanted just to do something back in Portsmouth, I grew up here and we wanted to bring something back home back to the area and then we got involved with our charity the Kiwanis and we thought that over the years we could grow it into something and so it has done pretty good, then COVID happened last year."
Ferrell told of why he picked Dreamland to write about.
"I did spend a lot of time at the Dreamland pool up until I was about 12 years old. I wrote 'Dreamland' from a 12-year-old boy's perspective," Ferrell said. "I wasn't old enough to go to the dances or other things for the teens at that time."
Ferrell continued, " We are excited that we can make it a free event this year, this is the first year we've been able to make it free. We are all looking forward to this event, it will be the first time I've played back with my band back when the COVID stuff hit, we are 'biting at the bit' to get back to playing."
Reach Kimberly Jenkins (740)353-3101 ext. 1928
© 2021 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
