Jody Ocker Sunbury Riverfest in Studio

Jody Ocker, the Executive Director for Sunbury Revitalization Inc., stepped into the GOAT Studio to talk about Sunbury River Fest happening Friday and Saturday!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Here's what's going on in your community.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Look at all the captivating, fascinating things they're out to do.

SPEAKER_01 0:07

It's Talk of the Town with Nikki Blue. Hey, it's Nikki Blue, and it is another day here in the GOAT Studio, and I am joined by a very lovely guest. I have Jody Auker, the executive director from Sunbury Revitalization Inc., who is here to talk about Riverfest happening in Sunbury this Friday and Saturday. So hi Jody. Hi, Nikki. How?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

It's nice to meet you. Nice to see you again. Yeah, it's nice to see you again, too. So, yeah, River Festival. This is our big annual event by Sunbury's Revitalization. We've been around for 40 years. Wow. And uh this is the 38th River Festival event that we've held. Oh, really? It hasn't yet been that long already. Yeah, and it's it's gone through some, you know, evolution over time. And this year we're really excited because, you know, after COVID, things kind of died down a little bit, and now we're on the strong upswing and we've expanded to include some more activities and things this year. So it starts Friday night, 4 to 9, and then Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. But there's three kind of different areas of the festival. There's Market Street and Cameron Park, then there's the Front Street side of the Riverfront Park, and then there's the river side of the riverfront park. Cameron Park and Market Street, we're having Touch a Truck Friday evening, all up and down from Market Street from front till 4th. And then in the Cameron Park will be vendors and food trucks and all that stuff. And then on Saturday, it'll be the car show from 10 to 3 in that same area on Market Street. And then, of course, the vendors and food trucks. But there's also the gazebo, where we're calling that our Kohl's Hardware community stage, where it's lots of really great family-friendly entertainment, like Clyde Peeling's Reptile Inn on Friday night, line dancing on Friday night, which I think will be a lot of fun. And then on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., there'll be a historical portrayal of a woman living in Sunbury in the frontier days, when Sunbury was the edge of the frontier in the late 1700s by Hope Cop. And then we have two showings of a puppet show at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. And then we have Julie Ho is a business owner with her husband in downtown Sunbury, but she's also a professional magician. Okay. So she's just gonna put on a little bit of a show at three o'clock. But at the Front Street PlayStation, we're having just free games for people to enjoy. Yard games. There'll also be a bounce house, and then something really new this year is the Armored Combat Tournament being hosted by the Susquehanna Hellions. And so they're actually hosting a tournament. And so Saturday there'll be also teams from other areas, even outside the state, that'll come to compete. There will also be a pedal tractor pull and that put on by Baptist Church, a Dungeons and Dragons live event. In the front street area, we have a tent set up there. From two to five, they'll be playing. We have airweaver balloons, we have face painting that's free. And then on the river stage down by the river, we have the live music going on. But Friday night it's gonna be video days, an 80s tribute band by Irv Ball. And so if you come, you might want to just you know dress up in your favorite 80s styles. And then on Saturday, Julie Hole will do a magic show at 3, and then the live music starts with the Night Howls at 3:30, and then Hank at the Buffalo at 6. And of course, we always top off River Festival with fireworks out over the river. Yeah. And we're really, you know, happy to be able to bring this free event. It's free to attend, and there's so many free activities. Bring the family and friends. You could spend some time, bring them chairs and a blanket and hang out with us. And we wouldn't be able to do that without our sponsors. So we always have our Wise Markets UPMC and JLO Giving Fund, our SRI community partners. Um the River Stage sponsor is MT Bank. The fireworks sponsor is Susquehanna River Valley Visitors Bureau, and of course, uh the Gazebo stage is Cold's Hardware is the sponsor. The family activities, all those different kinds of games, we're sponsored by Service Electric, T Ross Brothers Construction, Fulton Bank, and Sunbury Motors, and then the car show, the Cruise In dealership sponsors are Blaze Alexander Family Dealership, Sunbury Motors, and Zimmermans. And of course, we love having Seven Mountain Minas as our broadcast partner.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

We love seeing you guys. You guys always have something really cool going on whenever you guys step into here. I always love hearing what you have going on. We have a lot of fun. It's a lot of work, but we have a lot of fun. Well, yeah, but it always pays off because this is such a fun thing happening in Sunbury. I remember going to it growing up. Yeah. And it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah. It's got a great history, and again, we're always trying to improve it every year just to bring interesting, fun, and uh free things that folks can do together. Well, is there anything else you want on about this quick? Go to thinkksunberry.com. That's where you get some information about everything going on in Sunberry, including the River Festival.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Okay, thinkSunberry.com. You heard that here first. Again, thank you, Jody, for coming in and chat with me. That is Friday, August 14th, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday, August 15th, from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. And it's going to be huge. It's gonna be a lot of fun, and thank you for coming in. Thank you so much.