Sep. 2—When organizers chose the name "Thunder Over Burnside" for the town's Labor Day fireworks event, they didn't mean for the name to be quite so literal as it was on Saturday.
Lightning storms played havoc across the region this past weekend, interfering in everything from the University of Kentucky's season-opening football game to Burnside's annual celebration of the end of the summer tourism season.
At this year's Thunder Over Burnside, held at Cole Park, the crowd had been strong for the first part of the day — thanks in large part to the fact that for the first time, the event was free to attend. Sister singers Magnolia Vale had completed their set and Kentucky blueswoman Rachel Crowe was in the middle of hers when a whip's crack of a lightning bolt flashed on the horizon.
Though the event had pledged to go on rain or shine, lightning is another matter — and Burnside Tourism Director Jerrica Flynn got on the stage at Cole Park to let people know there would be a 20 minute delay in the music for safety's sake. But as the storm continued and a torrential rain sent festivalgoers running for their cars, it was clear organizers were going to have to readjust their plans.
As such, the fireworks were held on Sunday night instead — and the people came back, with crowds gathering in Cole Park and on the streets of Burnside to watch the sky light up the night before Labor Day in a glorious cacophony of colors.
"There was a great crowd," said Flynn, who thought it was the best show yet for Burnside's pyrotechnics provider Freedom Fireworks and operator Mark Baker. "There were hundreds of people, and there were boats on the lake and tons of people lined up on U.S. 27, as well as Burnside residents watching from their back yards."
Flynn walked the Commonwealth Journal through the decision process on Saturday to cancel that evening's proceedings once the severity of the storms made that a necessary call.
"We're not afraid of just a little rain, but the threat of lightning, that was what cued me in to start pulling the plug," she said. "At the time, we didn't know that it was going to (bring) that much rain. My decision to pull was when ... it was repeated lightning strikes, and when we were on our second and impending third delay, when the clock kept restarting, that's what led me to look at the radar with our sound engineers on site, as well as talk to some of our bands.
"The radar actually showed the core of the storm missing us, but even though (that was the case), I didn't want to take a chance on that," she continued. "I just wanted to give everyone enough notice to try and get out before the storm happened. It came a lot quicker than expected."
With a 20-minute delay mandatory for each nearby lightning strike, that would have pushed back the night's schedule too far anyway. With fireworks scheduled to begin at 9:30, and very little leeway time-wise for that, it got to a point where continuing the event just wasn't feasible on Saturday, and organizers immediately got word out that the fireworks would be held on Sunday night instead.
After the first delay was called, Crowe spoke to the Commonwealth Journal, and even though she didn't get to finish her performance, the lively rocker with a powerful stage presence expressed appreciation for the opportunity to perform in Cole Park this past weekend.
"Somerset and Burnside paid my bills for a long time," she said with a laugh, referencing the amount of gigs the Stanton, Ky., native has played in the area — and continues to, as they'll be at Jack's Axes on September 13. "This is like a second home to me because all my friends are here — Kenny (Meredith), Jon (New), Jamey (Robinson, all of whom perform with Crowe). We all hang out. ... I always have a good reception in (Pulaski County)."
Talking about the energy she displays on stage, the quick-witted Crowe said it comes from getting to play music her friends — and from having an outlet for her emotions, or as she jokingly put it, "I can't afford therapy," before adding, "I could, but why would I want to spend $150 an hour when I can do this, and get paid to do it? That sounds awesome."
Flynn hopes to have Crowe and her local musical colleague Jonathan New come back next year, as well as County Wide, which would have been Saturday night's headlining act. She said both acts are amenable to doing so, and are in talks with Burnside officials.
"We would be very interested in hosting them back in Cole Park next year to give them the show that we'd planned on originally," said Flynn.
The bands marked a change in scheduling philosophy somewhat for Burnside. Past events have featured the likes of Exile and Rhonda Vincent, but by going with more local and regional bands — along with Crowe, Magnolia Vale is from Lebanon, Ky., and County Wide from Corbin — that went a long way toward allowing the event to be free to the public, with the help of title sponsor Kingsford Manufacturing.
Burnside officials had been working toward the goal of a free-to-attend festival for some time, but after bad weather led to a scant crowd at the summer kick-off festival in June, it became clear that's what was needed. Flynn noted that having two such events in the same summer encounter weather woes was a "bad luck of the draw," and she hated cancelling things Saturday for the sake of the vendors and food trucks who showed up to do business, but overall, she found the weekend to be a potential success for showing the amount of people they can bring to Burnside with a free event.
"We got excellent feedback for our free admission," said Flynn. "In the past, we'd never truly wanted to charge for admission. Just with post-pandemic pressures on all of our expenses going up and trying to experiment with having ... more notable acts who primarily play in a concert-type setting," that necessitated charging at the gate to make up the costs.
"When you have a big community festival like that, whether it's one day like this year or two days like in the past, the whole point of having it is to bring tourism to Burnside and then also do something for the community to be proud of," she added. "For me, accessibility is priority number one. We want our food vendors to come down and have a good set-up to advertise their product. Same thing with our small businesses (and) craft vendors, but also the public, making it affordable and easy to come to. I think that takes the pressure off of (for example) a family of five that wants to come to an event ... taking that financial end off of it."
Flynn noted that a few of the vendors — City Slicker Dawgs, Tami's Tasti Kitchen, and Koffee Pig — even returned for Sunday night's fireworks and "seemed to do really well with the crowd that we had in the park."
Burnside was also a vendor themselves, selling some new Burnside merchandise highlighting the city's status as a lakeside tourism destination.
"We know we're at the tail end of our lake season, but we just wanted to drop a few designs as feelers to see what worked and what didn't," said Flynn. That included two styles of hats, three t-shirts and three different tank tops, each advertising either Kingsford and Thunder Over Burnside, general lake tourism, or Burnside itself. "Those were extremely popular, and sales were picking up right before the rain started, but we did offer the merchandise again (Sunday) and even then, we had some good sales."
She noted that in the future, eventgoers should expect to see these apparel options any time Burnside sets up at a community event — including brand-new limited edition merchandise as well as favorites from this year.
The vendors are a big part of what makes a Burnside event a success. With a beer garden by Tap on Main, and a large variety of food options from sweet treats to savory meals, Cole Park was awash in mouth-watering smells Saturday afternoon — before it was awash in rainfall.
"We love coming down to burnside," said Stephanie Young-Johnson of Scoop Bug Ice Cream & More. "This is probably our third or fourth year that we've been coming down. They're just really easy to work with. The people are sweet and we enjoy it."
