Riverfest to kick off Friday in Rices Landing
Rices Landing will kick off the summer festival season this week with Riverfest, a two-day celebration held on the banks of the Monongahela River featuring food, music, fireworks and activities for all members of the family.
Riverfest will begin at 5 p.m. Friday and continue on Saturday, when gates open at 2 p.m. Activities wrap up about midnight each night.
Held each year on the former Rices Landing Lock and Dam lock wall, Riverfest is sponsored by the Rices Landing Volunteer Fire Company. It serves as a fundraiser for the fire company as well as local church and civic organizations.
“It’s a community festival and a music festival. It’s a little bit of everything,” said Ryan Belski, fire company president and Rices Landing Borough mayor.
“In the daytime, especially on Saturday, it is more kid and family oriented, and in the evening, with the bands, it’s more of an older crowd, but pretty much it is a family-oriented event all together,” Belski said.
More than 45 vendors had already signed up to participate in the festival a week before its start and Belski said he expected more to be on hand for the festival’s opening.
On both days, there will be food and crafts and activities for children, including face-painting, airbrush tattoos, a magician, balloon tying, games and inflatable bouncing houses.
As part of the festival, the historic W.A. Young Foundry and Machine Shop, unchanged since the days it served the riverboat and mining industries, will be open to the public. People also can take a stroll on nearby Greene River Trail.
The event is a major fundraiser for the fire company. But many local organizations, including church and boosters groups, also take advantage of it and set up tables or booths to raise money selling food or other items, Belski said.
Riverfest was first organized in 1976 to celebrate Greene County’s bicentennial. It was held each year, except in 1986 and 1987, when flooding on the Mon damaged the lock wall, and discontinued following the 2005 festival.
The fire company revived the event in 2013 and it has been holding it each year since then. The main sponsor for the festival this year is EQT.
The event has always been fairly successful, Belski said, but because it is held so early in the season, it often has been plagued by rain.
Two years ago, the event went off despite severe thunderstorm warnings. “Last year was the first year we had sunshine both days,” he said. It helped draw record attendance.
Bands scheduled to perform Friday include the country band Cross Creek, which will take the stage at 7 p.m., and Quick Exit, a rock band, which will perform at 9:30 p.m.
On Saturday, Leathers and Behm, an acoustic duo, will perform at 3 p.m.; and Fourth River Band, which performs a mixture of musical styles, will take the stage at 5:30 p.m.
The country band Ruff Creek is scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. Saturday and The Hillbilly Way will take the stage at 9:45 p.m.
Fireworks are scheduled each night at 10 p.m.
Admission to Riverfest is $5 for adults 18 and older and $2 for children ages 5 to 17. Children under 5 are free.
Some parking will be available at Pumpkin Run Park and along the Main Street of Rices Landing. Additional parking will be at the Rices Landing fire hall and, if needed, the Rices Landing American Legion. A free shuttle service will be available to and from those lots.