The 13th Annual Kool-Aid Days will be held August 13-15 this year in Hastings, Nebraska, to celebrate the invention of Kool-Aid by Edwin Perkins in 1927.  We continue to grow the festival, with added events, larger crowds, and more opportunities for you.  We expect upward of 40,000 guests to attend Kool-Aid Days 2010.

 

As usual, food vendors are invited to participate on Saturday, August 14th, from 10 am to 4 pm near the City Auditorium, downtown at the intersection of 4th Street and Hastings Avenue near the World’s Largest Kool-Aid Stand, the Giant Inflatables, and our Downtown Live Stage.  OR, you may participate Saturday evening from 6 pm to 10 pm at Brickyard Park, where we will be holding “Koncert Kool-Aid” featuring Rave On! (a Buddy Holly tribute), followed by a fireworks display.  We will move the World’s Largest Kool-Aid Stand to Brickyard Park between 4 and 5 pm and continue to serve at the park.  The classic car Kool-Aid Cruise of America will also conclude at Brickyard Park at approx. 6 pm, with hundreds of cars on display for the evening, and all their drivers looking for somewhere to eat.  Because of the tight scheduling, we must ask you to choose either a downtown location during the day OR a Brickyard Park location for the evening, unless you can shut down at 4 pm, move, and be ready to serve again at Brickyard promptly at 6 pm.

We expect approximately 10-18,000 people at each of these locations, but have no accurate method of predicting the turnout.  It may be even larger.  We continue to expand our marketing efforts through regional advertising in magazines, newspapers, radio and television.  NTV will again be providing significant on-air exposure for three months in advance of the festival.  We’ll also be advertising through brochures and post cards on Interstate 80 all summer and have received a marketing grant from the State Division of Travel & Tourism for a month of digital billboards in Lincoln and North Platte.

On Sunday, August 15th, there are two opportunities for food vendors to participate in Kool-Aid Days.  Non-profit organizations are invited to set up at the Hastings Museum, where admission will be only $3 (usually $6) all day, with special outdoor activities from 1-3 pm.
Both for-profit and non-profit vendors are invited to participate at Lake Hastings on Sunday, where we will be holding the fifth annual Kool-Aid Kardboard Boat Races.  We are preparing for a large crowd, including operating the Kool-Aid Days Trolley amongst all the Sunday events and overflow parking lots in order to accommodate everyone who wishes to attend.  There is also at Lake Hastings a Kool-Aid Days 5K Fun Run/Walk at 9 am and a Flying Disc Golf Tournament at 10 am if you’d like to catch those players and fans before the 1 pm rush.  If you’re coming to town for a Saturday event and have already paid your city fees, this is just one more opportunity to profit from the thousands of guests who will attend the largest Kool-Aid Days ever!