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Rooster Walk Wins 2014 Kaleidoscope Award
What happens when you combine cardboard, fried foods, country music and a month long event celebrating history? You have four of the best festivals in the Southeast. They, along with fifteen other events, were spotlighted at the Southeast Festivals and Events Kaleidoscope Awards, sponsored by RCS Productions, at the Hilton Savannah DeSoto in Savannah, Georgia on February 18. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the 11th Annual Southeast Festivals and Events (SFEA) Conference, presented by East Coast Pyrotechnics.
Rooster Walk 5, a local music and arts festival, was honored at the ceremony with a Silver Kaleidoscope Award for Best Marketing Program. Rooster Walk organizers and the Martinsville-Henry County EDC’s Tourism Division partnered together to assemble an awards submission packet which contained posters, press releases, promotional videos, samples of social media use and media coverage from the 2013 festival.
“We’re thrilled and honored to receive this Kaleidoscope Award for marketing,” said Johnny Buck, the co-founder of Rooster Walk Inc. “We owe a big thank you to our festival marketing team of Chad Bassett, Jay Franck, Harrison Gardner, Johnny Selman and Matt Manzano for all the fantastic work they contribute each year. This was definitely a team effort.”
According to Jennifer Doss, Director of Tourism for Martinsville-Henry County, “Rooster Walk Music and Arts Festival is an event that just keeps getting better and better each year. We think that the organizers and their many volunteers do a spectacular job of marketing the event and we’re delighted to see that the judges agreed with us!”
“This was the year of recognizing a community effort,” noted Wendy Thomas, executive director for SFEA. “The award for ‘Best Festival’ is given to two organizations, based on budget criteria, and both of the festivals recognized this year are planned by folks within their own community vs. an out-of-state show promoter. The Southeast takes great pride in its events as well as its traditions. This year was no exception with The Southern Fried Festival in Columbia, Tennessee and The Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion in Bristol, Virginia taking top honors.”
The name “kaleidoscope” was selected due to the colors in the image that represent the many different elements and facets within festivals and events. “We take this colorful image one step further in that we have a master glassblower create unique pieces for the ‘Best Festival’ winners as well as the ‘Best NEW Festival’ (Kingsport FunFest for “Kingsport Cardboard Challenge” in Kingsport, Tennessee) and ‘Best Cultural Event’ (City of Roswell, Georgia for “Roswell Roots”),” said Thomas. “We could not think of a better way to honor these events, than with a gorgeous piece of artwork designed specifically for them.”
The categories in which one can win recognition are also diverse, ranging from Best Social Media Campaign to Best Creative Idea to Best Festival or Event.
According to Doss, “The Kaleidoscope Award adds to a string of accolades that the event has received in the past several years and we’re proud to have this high quality event in our community.”
The event has also been named:
- No. 1 “Under the Radar” festival in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine (2013)
- “Most Creative Charitable Event” in Southwest Virginia by readers of Virginia Living Magazine (2013)
- One of the “Top 100” outdoors events in the Southeast by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine (2012)
Want to know why Rooster Walk is so popular? Come see for yourself on May 22nd – 25th at Blue Mountain Festival Grounds in Martinsville, VA. Tickets are on sale now at www.RoosterWalk.com.