The city of Cassville is launching a new festival this year, a collaboration with the Rotary Club, YMCA and Roaring River State Park, among others, that will span three days and begins with a concert at Cassville South Park.

Outdoor Days, scheduled for June 1-3, begins with a Thursday performance by The Isaacs, members of the Grand ole Opry and Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The Chick-Fil-A mobile kitchen will be set up during the show as the only food vendor, and some attractions for children are in the works. There will be no other vendors, but a secondary drink option is being pursued.

On Friday, festival-goers are encouraged to enjoy a day of fishing and hiking at Roaring River State Park, then head up the hill to Bill Hailey Arena for the opening night of the Rotary Rodeo.

On Saturday, the YMCA will host a free swim day at the Cassville Aquatic Center, with all ages receiving free admission. After drying out, people can head back to the Arena for another night of Rotary Rodeo action.

Outdoor Days was conceived in just under a month’s time, spearheaded by Racheal Freeman, Element 79 business development manager, Jon Horner, Cassville alderman, and Steve Walensky, Cassville city administrator.

“The Chamber as not able to facilitate TroutFest, so we tried to take some of their suggestions and rebrand while keeping the same idea of bringing tourism to Cassville,” Freeman said. “I tried to get Patrick Mahomes hers, but his starting fee was $450,000.”

Horner said the concept of a summer festival began in 2017 at a city strategic planning committee meeting.

“We pushed the idea of having an event that ties in with Roaring River, which has continued to have a boom in attendance,” he said. “We saw success with TroutFest and felt we were ready to take it to another level because one of the original objectives was a multi-day event. We decided to change the name because everything here is outdoor-oriented.”

Part of the new branding is a new logo — Bo Trout — a blue, beige and red trout in an orange cowboy hat and holding a lasso.

“We’ve put several years of work trying to claim Roaring River as our own, and the trout is the icon or mascot of the park, so we wanted to keep that in the logo,” Freeman said. “Another big draw is the Rodeo, so we thought this logo would be more inviting and spark more interest with his rope and hat. When i was coming up with it, I saw a lot of trout riding bulls, and that made me think, whey can’t a trout go to the rodeo? It will also help with merch sales to have such a unique logo.”

Cut from the weekend will be the fireworks show, which Horner said was a draw, but The Isaacs will be bigger.

“People liked the fireworks, but we thought, what can we do to get a bigger bang for our buck,” he said. “We think this concert can attract about 3,000 people, which will be a bigger boost to Cassville businesses than just the fireworks.”

Horner said TroutFest saw about 1,000 people come and go each year, and the city hopes The Isaacs can triple that figure.

TroutFest had been funded by a combination of city and the Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce, with the city supplying $5,000 for the event, plus paying the $10,000 fireworks fee. Horner said part of that $15,000 per year was for infrastructure at the park, adding lighting, wifi and electrical boxes. Beyond those funds, the Chamber solicited sponsorships and generally oversaw the event. Total spending by the city for three years of TroutFest total about $90,000 with improvements made ta the park.

Outdoor Days comes with a price tag of $30,000, fully funded by the city, with a return on the investment expected to be reflected in sales tax figures.

“It will come out of general revenue and more as an economic development expenditure because we are trying to bring people to town,” Horner said. “Once they are in town, they will spend money with local businesses and help bring in increased sales tax revenue.”

Morgan Williams, Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce director, said the Chamber hopes to see Outdoor Days become a success.

“The Cassville Area Chamber of Commerce is excited for Cassville Outdoor Days,” she said. “We are disappointed that TroutFest didn’t have the expected attendance and income to sustain itself long term. We are hopeful though, that this event will be even more successful and bring people to town to support our local business owners.”

A goal for the city is to continue making Cassville the place to be in June, aiming specifically to draw tourists from Roaring River State Park.

“We will put posters at the Park Store and I am working with the lodging community to get the word out and fliers up,” Freeman said. “David Waugh, Roaring River Concessions manager, Joel Topham, Roaring River State Park/ historic site manager, and Brad Farwell, Roaring River Hatchery manager, have always been more than helpful in anything we try to do inside or outside the park.”

“Roaring River also puts out a weekly schedule of events, and this is a big enough draw I think people will want to come back for it again next year,” Horner said.

Executing a three-day event will take volunteers, and Freeman and Horner said one of the great things about Outdoor Days is how many organizations will be involved.

“At the Rodeo, we will have all entities working together — the city, Rotary and Cassville FFA Booster — to hopefully get a better event,” Freeman said. We’ve also told the disc golf club it may be a good time for a tournament. That will also relieve some entities a bit so one doesn’t have to do all the things with the same volunteers. We will also promote the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and just promote the community as a whole.”

“We are tying in rotary and Roaring River, and we hope to be able to tie in the baseball tournament or softball programs, and other organizations like churches to use busses to shuttle concert- goers,” Horner said. “This is a great way to show how we are ‘America’s Real Hometown,’ pulling a collection of our community organizations together to put on a great event.”

Freeman said The Isaacs are booked for this year, but the future is an unknown.

“They will play at least 90 minutes, and we hope to have another group of their quality next year,” she said. “The goal is to continue this caliber of a draw and keeping it in the country and bluegrass genre.”

With the Cassville City Council’s approval at the March meeting, the city is now moving forward on finalizing plans for this year.

“I’m excited for this,” Horner said. “Racheal had the vision for how we wanted to change the event, plus Steve supported us. I look forward to three really fun days.”