As plans continue to come together for the 2019 Bell Tower Festival in Jefferson, Greene County Chamber and Tourism continues to support the new direction of the event.
Chamber and Tourism Interim Director Michael Reese says following last year’s festival, he was approached by Doug Rieder about putting together an alumni committee to discuss possible changes. From there, Reese helped put together the advisory committee, of which Rieder and other community members are a part of. Reese points out some of the change was giving support to the advisory committee and creating a ten-member steering committee that will eventually be the voting entity of the festival.
“Change is always hard for a lot of people, especially if you’ve been doing the same thing for a certain amount of time. But this is one of the feathers in my cap and in the Chamber’s cap as far as we did what’s best for the community. We negotiated things back and forth like any two groups should. But at the end of the day, the community wins. I’m 100-percent excited about where we are at with the festival.”
The 2019 festival is slated for June 7th through the 9th. The advisory committee is also seeking seed money for the event. Checks can be made payable to Bell Tower Festival and dropped off at Home State Bank in Jefferson.