This is just one of the fun activities at the Lima Crossroads Festival. Photo by Amy Crawford
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
What would be better than taking advantage of a beautiful summer weekend by heading out to enjoy some live music, and knowing that entertainment will be provided for the kids if you have them? Answering that question, what could make it even better would be knowing that entertainment will be provided free of cost for both the kids and the adults. Sounds like a good deal to us! It’s actually been five years since we’ve written about the Lima Crossroads Festival so we thought it was time for another shout-out.
This attractive offer will take place at the 2024 Lima Crossroads Festival which has experienced a remarkable revitalization over the past decade. It’s continued to grow and this year it will expand to even greater proportions.
What has turned things around? Read on and we’ll fill you in.
In addition to continuing the four-day format which was adopted in 2019, this year’s festival will add a 5K run/walk for the first time, to be held on Saturday morning. Other 2024 highlights will include 26 live bands performing at four different venues. The front lawn of the Presbyterian Church will be adorned with 50 different vendors and this will be the 4th year of the barbecue cook off.
Three years ago a scavenger hunt was introduced that had over 200 kids of all ages (including their parents) participate. It’s free and there is a giveaway of amazing free raffle prizes at 3:00 pm, as well as a chance to win other free on-location raffles. Another fund raiser affords the opportunity to jokingly have friends and family members temporarily locked up in the actual jail cell that was originally in the Lima Town Hall.
A Thursday night parade will kick off the festivities and other family-friendly events will include a bounce house and a petting zoo. Jim Shelly, our long-time friend, and member of the Lima Crossroads Council is still talking about the baby kangaroo from last year.
That Lima Crossroads Council actually has monthly meetings on a year-round basis in order to take care of all the planning necessary to pull off this event. It was this council that completed the paperwork to earn the festival a significant grant from the Livingston County Economic Development Council, which we will get to in a moment.
The first musical notes will begin to waft their way into the sultry summer sky at 7:00 this Thursday night, Lima standard time. There will actually be four different Lima locations from which the tunes will be emanating throughout the festival. The two primary venues will be two 4,000 square foot tents set up, one in the parking lot by Fanatics (the west tent) and another one near the Town Hall (the east tent). The website schedule that tracks the acts uses the “east/west” designations to direct destinations.
In 2013, with the attendance at Lima’s annual summer festival lagging, the Lima Crossroads Council decided to experiment with the concept of incorporating the musical component of the blues festival, which Jim Shelly had initiated, to the more established elements such as the kids’ activities and of course the unique local favorite, the bed race. The strategy is certainly paying dividends as attendance has continued to increase, as documented in the following paragraph.
This year the Lima gala has lined up 26 musical acts performing with staggered starts on multiple stages in a festival event that totally exceeds what one might expect to see in a small town like Lima. As we mentioned, last year the festival was awarded a grant from Livingston County Economic Development (LivCo for short), part of whose mission is to bring people to the county. The Crossroads Festival seems to be living up to its part of the bargain in that regard. As part of that grant, LivCo monitored attendance and determined that 17,000 people attended over the four-day event!
The town will be filled with food vendors and beer trucks and it will be the only 4 days of the calendar year that Lima suspends its open container law. When the concert ends at the east tent you can take your beer with you as you traverse the 4-corners on your way to the west tent. Be careful as you cross though, as jaywalking laws will still be enforced.
In our article about the festival five years ago, we closed with the following joke, so here it is for a second go-round… If you were pondering a visit to the 50th anniversary of Woodstock and disappointed that it didn’t pan out, here’s your backup plan. Four days of music, peace and love with two major benefits . . . you don’t need to buy a ticket and you won’t have to go to the bathroom in the woods.
Times and schedule for all the activities are available at the festival website LimaFest.org. Lima is lovely this time of year and we hope to see you there.
