Organizers offer clearer picture of Tall Stacks-like festival planned for 2025

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati City Council Budget and Finance Committee heard presentations Monday from organizers of a new festival planned for the banks of the Ohio River that will remind many of the Tall Stacks festival of the past.

America’s River Roots will be held on the Ohio River from Oct. 9 to 12, 2025, officials said this spring.

The festival will be “focused on the Ohio River.” The festival is set to kick off the United States’ 250th birthday celebrations in 2026.

New details about the festival have been revealed

A presentation to council committee members on Monday included several new details, including the number of planned music stages and some plans for boats participating in the festival.

The presentation also revealed the estimated cost of the event: $16,450,000. Organizers anticipate that most of the cost will be spent on entertainment and production, as well as logistics related to the riverboats — such as supplies, lodging and travel fees. Most of the funds will come from sponsors and state, county and local governments, according to the presentation.

“The goal of America’s River Roots is to invite everyone locally, regionally, nationally and, in fact, internationally,” said Susan Fisher, the festival’s executive director. “We stretch from Bengals Stadium (to) Sawyer Point.”

There is no word on whether the federal government will provide funding for the festival, which is to be part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.

During the presentation, three main themes of the festival were discussed: cuisine, culture and music.

The culinary portion of the presentation includes:

• Multicultural food and products
• Regional Food Truck and Restaurant Row
• Presentations by famous chefs
• Bourbon tasting sessions
• Craft Beer Tasting Sessions
• Offer of river cruises with specific themes

In terms of music, the presentation said the festival hopes to provide:

• Nationally acclaimed and emerging artists on eight different stages along the Ohio River
• River Roots Gospel Revival
• Recognition on the Cincinnati Black Music Hall of Fame
• Performances without electricity

Among the cultural events that festival participants can count on are:

• Tall Stacks Riverboat Cruises
• River Cities Exhibition
• Educational program Sounds of the River
• Exhibits from the era of steamships and river industry
• Freedom Center Lecture Series
• Regional cultural tours planned for the period after the festival include:
  • Freedom Journey Digital Platform
  • Riverwalk Heritage Tour
  • Bourbon Trail
  • UNESCO Earthworks

The presentation included a map of the waterfront, marking the location of many of the festival’s attractions.
“It’s a five-day festival, and people will come and go as they please, but we’ll have activities morning, noon and night for everyone to enjoy,” Fisher said. “There will be something for all ages, generations.”

The map divides the entire festival into eight different zones, each with its own stage. The zones are placed along the Ohio River to stretch the festival from the Andrew J Brady Music Center to the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge on the Cincinnati side.

America’s River Roots, Inc.

In northern Kentucky, the festival stretches from a “yacht village” planned west of the Roebling Bridge near Covington to Newport on the Levee, where bourbon tastings are to be held.

The aforementioned “yacht village” is also listed as a sponsorship opportunity; the organizers’ presentation highlights “yacht mooring at Covington Landing during a four-day event with VIP river taxi service” as a possible source of funding for the event. There will also be opportunities for corporate or club reservations for riverboat cruises or tastings.

The map also shows a designated riverboat area along Yeatman’s Cove at the Serpentine Wall — as well as two river taxis that will shuttle people between the Cincinnati side of the river and the northern Kentucky side.

The presentation also includes a timeline that more specifically outlines the festival’s path to completion by its October 2025 start date. For now, organizers are focusing on the details, but the presentation says they plan to announce headline artists in the first quarter of 2025. The full festival lineup should then be announced in the second quarter of 2025.

“We’re excited and proud to be one of the first in the country to kick off the nation’s 250th anniversary,” Fisher said. “We’re going to open up our incredible 1.5-mile Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky waterfront and it’s going to be an event you just can’t miss.”

America’s River Roots Festival Brings Steamboats, Country Music Artists and More to the Ohio River

The festival will feature a lot of live music, and the performers include Bryce Dessner of the rock band The National. The National, which consists of Cincinnati natives, are scheduled to perform.

As officials announced in the spring, the band will also include Kathy Wade, an award-winning jazz singer.

The Purple People Bridge will also be transformed into a food market for the festival.

Similar to the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival’s throwback to the past, America’s River Roots will feature 12 steamboats to celebrate Cincinnati, which was once the steamboat capital of the world.

Capt. Alan Bernstein, owner of BB Riverboats, has recruited 12 boats for next year’s event. Among the dozen boats are the only three operating commercial steamboats in the country.

“This has never been done recently, and the race will be on Sunday,” Bernstein said. “It’s a big event, three steamboats, and it’s going to be a really fun race.”

Bernstein said each ship will have its own theme, and the river cruises will combine music, food and culture.

Overall, the event will have a similar feel to Tall Stacks. Tall Stacks was first held in 1988 to celebrate Cincinnati’s bicentennial, with Greiwe serving as executive director of the event. That festival garnered national attention, with more than 700,000 people flocking to the waterfront for a three-day event that featured historic riverboats and a late 18th-century atmosphere.

The first Tall Stacks festival took place in October of that same year and was such a success — according to a Xavier University study, it generated $30 million in economic activity — that it was revived, with subsequent festivals in 1992, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2006.