Hokes Bluff CityFest

Free family fun, live music, rides and much more

Story by Paul South
Submitted photos

It began in 2014 as what could be called a 30-day miracle, a community party that went from dream to reality in a month.

That miracle, known as Hokes Bluff CityFest, celebrates its 12th anniversary Sept. 26. The free, family-friendly festival features hot music, classic cars, great food, arts and crafts, rides for the kids and more. The festival skipped 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event culminates with fireworks illuminating the night sky above Etowah County’s easternmost incorporated city. Some 3,000 people packed last year’s event.

A brief history

In 2014, Hokes Bluff Mayor Scott Reeves was a newly appointed member of the city council, filling the seat formerly held by his late father, longtime city leader Gary Reeves. Gadsden had decided to discontinue Riverfest, and John Moore – then on the Hokes Bluff governing board – floated the idea of CityFest to fill the breach.

“We got that thing together 30 days out,” Reeves said. “We got sponsors, got vendors and put that thing together in one month and made it work. It was a heck of a festival.”

He added, “It’s been really nice for our citizens and our surrounding communities to bring the family and have a free day. It’s free, except for what people spend at our vendors. That is because of our sponsors that support it. As long as we can (generate that support), we’re going to keep it free.”

This year’s major sponsors include Glencoe Hokes Bluff Funeral Home, Harmony Hydration, Buffalo Rock, Wiregrass Construction, Greater Gadsden Area Tourism, Peoples Independent Bank, Meridian Waste, Piggly Wiggly, Riverview Regional Medical Center, Ronnie Hopkins Ford, Hokes Bluff Drug Shop and Etowah County Commissioners Johnny Grant and Mike Powell.

“As important as the big sponsors are, every sponsor is as important,” Reeves said. “They help to keep our event free. “The free admission takes on added significance in the current economy.

“ We think that’s a good draw,” Reeves said. “I saw a statistic a while back that a lot of families are living paycheck to paycheck, trying to keep groceries on the table and keep the air conditioner and the heat running. We thought if we could get enough sponsors together for the stage and the kids’ rides, we could keep it free and give families an opportunity to do something like this without having to go into their wallets except to buy something from a vendor.”

The event begins at 7 a.m. with an estimated 100 custom street rods and classic cars. In the past, as many as 150 gleaming vehicles have taken part. The Hokes Bluff Lions Club will also host a breakfast at $5 per person.

“Golly bum, it’s a hearty breakfast,” Reeves said. “Bacon, eggs, gravy, you won’t leave hungry.”

Rides and vendors open at 10 a.m. at the city’s softball complex. Some 60 to 70 vendors are expected, selling food, drink, arts and crafts.

It’s a big day,” Reeves said.

Even as a small-town festival, CityFest has managed to draw some big-time entertainment down through the years, including country superstars Lorrie Morgan, Shenandoah, Confederate Railroad and the late Joe Diffie.

Rising country artist Drake White, a Hokes Bluff native, has toured with country star Riley Green and is a past performer at CityFest.

This year, the acts come from closer to home and from all musical genres. For example:

Headliner Lisa Perkins & the E-Lusion Band Motown & Soul Revue brings some Motor City magic to the stage, covering classics from The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smoky Robinson and the Miracles and more. Get ready to move your feet to this great band as they groove to the soul tunes from the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Women Icons of Rock covers classics from rock legends Heart, Stevie Nicks, Pat Benatar and other female legends from the 1970s and 80s.

A local favorite returns to Hokes Bluff when Still Broke Band returns to CityFest.

Another local favorite, Albert Simpson, also makes a return appearance. Simpson is a popular performer across the Southeast and is a regular at the Gulf Coast’s iconic Flora-Bama.

Up and coming country artist Jake Steed, who offers a mix of bluegrass and country along with Gospel for audiences across the nation.

And if the music makes you hungry, there’ll be something for every taste.

After an evening of music, the festival closes at 10 p.m., capped off by a fireworks display, a celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

CityFest is an integral part of the leadership’s vision for Hokes Bluff.

“Hokes Bluff has always been a quiet, family-type city,” Reeves said. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I pretty much know what the citizens want. They don’t want a city that’s bursting at the seams. They like the low-key atmosphere here. Our crime rate is really, really low.”

He added, “ We realize that the city has to have revenue to enable the first responders, police and fire to do their job and keep the infrastructure up. I like to see that our buildings are full right now and people shopping local. We support our schools. It’s just a nice place to call home. It’s a great place.”

He sees CityFest as a reward for the people of Hokes Bluff and surrounding areas that support local businesses. “It allows them to have a day of fun and excitement and enjoy the day together,” Reeves said. “It’s a way to let them know we appreciate their support.”

The festival isn’t all that’s happening in this community. Hokes Bluff has revitalized seven acres of city-owned waterfront property, at the site of the Hokes Bluff ferry. Two new pavilions, electricity, picnic tables, a new pier, LED lighting and a floating dock. The site also features a playground and a paved parking lot.

“We have completely transformed that site,” Reeves said. “It’s really come a long way. It’s really, really nice.”

There’s also a historical marker sharing the ferry’s history,

Reeves’ pride shines through when he talks about his hometown.

“We may not be an Atlanta, Georgia, or a Chattanooga, Tennessee, but we do offer some amenities for our citizens that gives them a good quality of life,” he said. “We want (out of towners) to come give us a visit.”

How would his late father view the festival and the changes in Hokes Bluff like the ferry project? “He would be very pleased,” Reeves said. “Dad (a 1958 graduate of Hokes Bluff High School) was all about Hokes Bluff. He would be very well pleased with the way we’ve progressed and the way we’ve carried on.”

Birmingham Sailing Club

A Logan Martin tradition since the lake began

Story by Paul South
Photos by David Smith
Courtesy of Birmingham Sailing Club

As fall approaches, bringing with it cooler winds sometimes brisk or minutes later a weak whisper, the Birmingham Sailing Club has charted a course for a busy schedule.

And as the days in 2026 dwindle down to a precious few, Logan Martin Lake gives sailors a unique challenge.

“The winds can shift quite a bit,” Birmingham Sailing Club Commodore Richard May said. “They can shift 90 degrees or 180 degrees at times. You can have gusts you have to deal with. The shifting winds and gusting winds are a problem – and sometimes no wind.”

Competition, fun and making a difference

Leading off this fall for the club is September’s Leukemia Cup Regatta. The event actually began on Logan Martin at the old Marina Bay Yacht Club, which later merged with the BSC in the late 1990s. The event is a major fundraiser for leukemia research that blossomed into a national event.

“It started here on our lake and then it became a national event all over the country,” May said. “After COVID hit, a lot of clubs stopped doing it, but we decided to keep doing ours. (Blood Cancer United, the former Leukemia Lymphoma Society) is glad to get the money.”

The fundraiser is fueled by member donations, live and silent auctions.

Enjoying the sail

The regatta began at Marina Bay to honor a member who died from the dreaded disease. This year’s Leukemia Cup Regatta is set for Sept. 12 at the club.

While it just passed, one event that deserves mention, the Rock, Paper Scissors Regatta for youth sailors was held on Aug. 29-30, attracting some 50 sailors and their parents, the club’s future generations. There’s also a post-race rock, paper scissors game.

“It’s truly a nice event,” May said. “The kids have a really good time.”

Here’s a look at other fall and winter events:

Fall Adult Learn to Sail: One of the club’s major initiatives is to grow the sport of sailing through instruction. On Sept. 19-20, adults can learn to sail. The course combines classroom instruction and time on the water. UAB professor Jack Rogers teaches the class.

Moonlight Cruise: On Sept. 26, the club hosts an evening cruise, an event as much social as sailing. The informal cruise, featuring many of the club’s keel boat sailors go out late in the evening and sail together in an unofficial club event.

Great Pumpkin Regatta: Good grief, Charlie Brown! On Oct. 17, Thistle class sailors from across the Southeast and beyond come to the lake to compete in the annual event. A Thistle is a high performance, one-design boat that’s considered “fun, fast and responsive,” according to the Thistle Class Association.

“We have a circuit of all the clubs in the Southeast district, and they’ll travel to the different regattas and compete against each other,” May said. Clubs like the Lake Lanier Sailing Club, the Atlanta Yacht Club and Muscle Shoals Sailing Club are among expected competitors. All are part of the Southeastern Thistle District.

Sailing teams up with succulent culinary delights on Nov. 14 when the club hosts its Oyster Roast-One day Regatta.

The Great Scot Regatta: On Oct. 24-25, the Great Scot Regatta launches its annual race, sanctioned by the Flying Scot Association. The Flying Scot class is a 19-foot, one-design boat designed in 1957. Considered virtually unsinkable, the craft is perfect for novice sailors.

And ending the calendar year with something merry and bright, the club hosts its annual Christmas One-Day Regatta on Dec. 12.

A storied history

As the club notes on its website, before 1960, sailing was a passion for only a handful of enthusiasts from the Birmingham area, willing to travel for hours searching for fair winds

and following waters.

Hiking out during race

But Alabama Power’s construction of Logan Martin Dam sparked a sea change in sailing’s fortunes in the Birmingham area, thanks to Thistle Class sailors Sam Caldwell and Herb Hagler.

With Alabama Power maps in hand, Caldwell combed St. Clair County’s backroads, searching for a place for the new Birmingham Sailing Club. He found the spot in Vincent near the dam on the St. Clair County side of the lake. The purchase was completed in December, 1962.

The club was incorporated in June, 1963, with 44 charter members. Construction on the clubhouse, ramps and docks began in late 1963, and the club’s first boats launched on July 16, 1964.

Since then, the club has not only been home to recreational and competitive sailing, but its membership has made its mark in regional and national racing.

“All of the current members really appreciate those founding members, the way they set the club up and bought the property outright,” May said. “There’s hardly a year that goes by that people don’t express their gratefulness to those founding members that conceived of the club.”

An annual Spring race – The Caldwell Cup Regatta – is named for Sam Caldwell, who died in 2012.

Fifty-year members

The Caldwell Cup is not the only homage to the club’s founder. His children come to the regatta annually. And in a bit of sailing serendipity, two 50-year members – Stan and Donna Graham – bought Caldwell’s Thistle, keeping it in the family, so to speak.

The couple fell in love with the sport thanks to a Learn-to-Sail class at UAB, and field trips to the Birmingham Sailing Club turned a spark into a flame.

“By the time of the field trips to the club, we had already bought a boat,” Graham said. “It was Sam Caldwell’s Thistle, 2416.”

But the lure of sailing may have been cast by Graham’s father, years before.

“When I was growing up, my Dad told me I needed to find a hobby that I could participate in my whole life. You play football, and then that’s over. You play tennis, and you get old and can’t do that anymore Doggone, this sailing just got me,” Graham said.

The couple, now Flying Scot sailors, would spend Saturdays at the club practicing techniques found in sailing publications.

Family fun

“We would practice all the time, when it was just me and her,” Graham said. “Not many spouses could get along well enough to be in a small boat and be competitive. Donna and I would get into small skirmishes, but we sailed hard.”

So in love was the couple with sailing that they’d pitch a tent near the clubhouse on weekends and spend the night, readying for Sunday races. And post-race, Graham kept a diary of each race.

The club has a proud tradition of competitive sailing.

“You look back over the (history of) the Southeast District that we were in, a lot of Birmingham sailors were champions of the Southeast District. So when we would go out on Sunday, we were racing against some of the best people in the Southeast. You had to get better, or go home,” Graham said. “And we got better.”

The couple took a few years away from sailing after the birth of their daughter, Laura. Years later, while taking graduate courses at UAB, the daughter took up sailing. So a family tradition continues.

“Laura was like a little bird, came back to the nest, the Birmingham Sailing Club. That brought us back,” Graham said.

A strong bond

The sailing community has a strong sense of camaraderie. This year, Birmingham’s sailing community, as well as the legal community, suffered a terrible loss when past BSC Commodore Bill North, a Jefferson County prosecutor, passed away over the summer.

“He was a great guy,” May said. “We will really miss him. He was a friend. It’s hard to believe (he’s gone), actually.”

With North’s loss, the year’s events take on added significance, May said.

“I think so,” he said. “We had a long-distance race called the Firecracker. There were a lot of people that were there. You could kind of tell there was a little more meaning to the get-together after the race.”

Across the club’s more than 60 years, a common theme rings like a bell down through the years.

“Just how much fun sailing and the camaraderie with other sailors that there is,” May said. “We go out and compete hard against each other and talk about it and have a good time. It’s a nice relationship.”

He added, “Sometimes we’ll be sailing against each other, and then we’ll be sailing with each other.”

For Stan and Donna Graham, it all goes back to their first boat, Sam Caldwell’s Thistle. Graham now finds and repairs old boats to help newcomers bitten by the sailing bug as he and Donna were a half-century ago. It’s an example of how the club warmly welcomes newcomers to the sport.

“If we had not found Sam’s boat, we might have lost interest,” Graham said.

For more information about the Birmingham Sailing Club, visit https://www.birminghamsailingclub.org.

Living the lake life always brings a smile

On a late summer afternoon boat ride, I couldn’t help but sit back and smile. It was our first venture out in weeks. Too hot, and I’m not as weather resistant as I once was.

Like sunsets, no two boat rides are the same. There’s always something different to see, something different to experience.

It could be a quiet conversation or a noisy boatload of lake revelers to transport. It might be showing newcomers the sights or pulling rowdy youngsters on a tow-behind.

But on afternoons like this, as the sun begins its daily descent, it is as if that noisy world is left behind like the remnants of a boat’s wake. The farther you go, the smaller it gets until it just disappears.

That’s lake life to me – rediscovering the healing powers of the water every time I take a ride. And that’s why all I could do is sit back and smile.

I found myself smiling throughout the editing of this issue of LakeLife 24/7 Magazine. After all, in one way or another, the stories we share are a lot like that boat ride and me. We all love lake life, and it shows.

Logan Martin Lake Protection Association is a prime example. Its members love lake life so much, they dedicate themselves to protecting and preserving it. Their latest milestone is placing the 100th buoy in Logan Martin to warn boaters about water depths and idle speeds – an effort to keep them safe.

The same is true of their bridge marker program. They’re placing bright yellow markers on bridge supports to keep nighttime boaters safe.

Dale and Ronnye Kendrick’s love of lake life is evidenced in their beautiful home in Southside on Neely Henry and the aroma of a special feast emanating from their kitchen.

Perhaps it’s the stunning view of sailboats crisscrossing Logan Martin’s main channel during a Fall regatta of Birmingham Sailing Club or the colorful sight of hot air balloons circling over Neely Henry in Gadsden. Or it just might be the equally delightful view of kids rushing down the giant, urban waterslide on a street near the waterfront.

Of course, there’s plenty of those lake life smiles to go around when Boo Bash, dock-to-dock trick-or-treating on Logan Martin, gears up for another round bigger, better and more fun than the one before it.

Over at Greensport Marina on Neely Henry, it gets a little messy around the water this time of year. It’s the third edition of the Little Tomatina, a tomato-filled food fight inspired by a Spanish festival. Organizers call it wild, wacky and unforgettable. Judging by ear-to-ear grins from last year’s event, we would say it’s lake life unbridled.

Lakeside Live’s outdoor music festival and car show at Lakeside Park is always a crowd pleaser, and Gadsden’s plans for a pedestrian bridge across the lake at Coosa Landing will offer even more access to lake life.

As always, you can read all about it in this edition of LakeLife 24/7. Don’t worry, there’s more lake life ahead. Turn the page and discover it all with us!

Carol Pappas
Editor and Publisher