Festival celebrates 20th anniversary

NEW CARLISLE- The New Carlisle Heritage of Flight Festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary Friday, Oct. 4 through Sunday, Oct. 6.

“It’s the 20th anniversary of its conception,” Heritage of Flight Festival President Mike Lowrey said. “The committee was formed in 2004, but the first actual festival was in 2005.”

Featuring fireworks, carnival rides, live music, car, motorcycle and Jeep shows, a parade of planes and more, the Heritage of Flight Festival is held each year during the first week of October.

This year’s festival will kick-off on Friday, Oct. 4 with the annual Heritage of Flight Cruise-In on Main Street, Lowrey said, followed by the Parade of Planes at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5.

“Once the parade is over, all the food vendors, rides, and craft vendors will all be open,” he said. “We’ll have numerous bands onstage, and entertainment.”

A Wright B. Flyer replica will do fly-overs during the parade, he said, and another Wright B. Flyer will be in the parade.

“You’ve also got the antique tractors that are pulling those planes, which people enjoy just as much as the planes,” Lowrey said.

The festival will also feature a wide variety of food trucks and a special Beer and Brat Hangar, featuring a big screen TV.

“Every kind of fair food you can think of, we’re going to have it,” Lowrey said.

The festival is also well-known for its signature airplane-shaped sugar waffles, which are made and sold by the Heritage of Flight Committee.

“We call it a plane sugar waffle,” Lowrey said. “We had custom molds made, and they are literally an airplane sugar waffle.”

“Last year we had a lady come out from Dayton International Airport,” he said. “She ordered like 40 of them to take back for all her friends at work.”

During the Heritage of Flight Festival, the Young Eagles group will also be offering free plane rides at the Andy Barnhart Memorial Airport, Lowrey said.

“As long as the weather permits, you can go out to the airport and they will give anybody who wants a free plane ride,” he said. “They’ll take you up, take you for a cruise around the perimeter of New Carlisle, come back and land.”

“It’s a great time to do it,” he said.

The annual fireworks display is scheduled to begin at dusk on Saturday night.

“We’re doing fireworks as long as we’re allowed,” Lowrey said. “With the drought, they’re saying there’s a slight concern there, but it’s been raining a lot here in the past couple of days so we’re hoping that will take care of it.”

Sunday, Oct. 6 will be kids’ day, Lowrey said, although the festival will still offer all of its normal attractions.

“We’ll still have bands, but we’re going to have a guy doing free caricature drawings for families or kids,” he said. “We’re going to have a guy on stage doing magic, and a ventriloquist act; we’ve got a lady coming who does balloon art for free.”

“We try to provide a handful of things that are also free, for people who are having a hard time financially,” Lowrey said. “They can still come and do a few things that are really cheap or free altogether.”

The Heritage of Flight Festival is organized by a committee of approximately 20-25 volunteers, Lowrey said.

“There’s only one person left who’s been on the committee since day one, for the full twenty years and that’s Marshall Gorby,” he said.

“A lot of dedicated people work hard to put it on,” Lowrey said. “We’re all volunteers. A lot of us use vacation time at work so we can get time off to run the festival.”

The festival is sponsored by Troy Goodall Lumber.

“They are our number one sponsor this year,” Lowrey said. “They are the biggest supporter of the festival; they are the ones who are helping us make fireworks happen.”

“They are a great local company,” he said. “One of the members of that business is on our committee. We’re fortunate to get the help that he gives us, and the financial support as a sponsor.”

More information on the Heritage of Flight Festival, and a full schedule of events and activities, can be found online at www.heritageofflight.com.