I've been to Tall Stacks a few times, but never did a cruise until this year thanks to my employer.

 

 

Bring out your dead! The children's theater was packed, several hundred at least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the boat we did the tour on . . . from Pittsburgh. We tried to figure out how to remove that damn flag with no luck.

 

 

 

 

The tour takes us under all the bridges which is always interesting.

 

 

Our cruise was sold out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably my favorite pic of the bunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I caught a few of the music acts. The park should always be this crowded.

 

 

I had to stick around for Buckwheat Zydeco. They had a great set.

 

Oh, great pictures!

 

Our cruise went upstream, so we didn't get to go under the Roebling...lucky you...

 

Thanks for the thread!

 

 

Fan-freaking-tastic.

Very nice!

Yep, fantastic.

Looks like a successful event.....can't wait for the Square events this coming saturday!!!

I noticed the steamboats all were heading upriver for their excursions when i was at Tall Stacks.

 

How far upriver did they go?

 

 

Great pics, wish I could have made it, I haven't been since 1996.

I guess antiquated steam boats and antiquated blues musicians don't attract young people.

I noticed the steamboats all were heading upriver for their excursions when i was at Tall Stacks.

 

How far upriver did they go?

 

 

Our cruise was an hour and a half. It went East and West but not that far.  Going East we just went past Friendship Park, heading West we past the Brent Spence and Longworth Hall. Going underneath all the bridges was definitely a highlight.

 

I hope someone on this forum took some evening shots the whole DT looked aglow.

 

Thanks for the comments.

I had one upriver cruise that went upriver to about Collins, then back...then one went downriver well past Mt. Echo park - a decent ways past it...then the third cruise went upriver in the dark, and I don't know exactly how far - I was pretty drunk by the time we turned around, and it was dark, but the moon was to the port side of the boat, so maybe as far as Lunken...

I guess antiquated steam boats and antiquated blues musicians don't attract young people.

 

I agree with you for the most part. There are certainly a fair amount of blue-haired types, but the musical acts attracted a good variety of people. I went back down Saturday night for Wilco. Well worth it.

 

City Beat has been reviewing the music acts the past four days. It a good read. Here's the link: http://citybeat.wordpress.com/

These are the only tall stacks I'm concerned with  :wink2:

 

 

 

 

 

just kidding... I like old blues music though and probably would have went if it were possible.

Nice pics by the way.

Great stuff!

Crowd composition was multigenerational...granparents, parents, and their kids.  I noticed people in the crowds with these period 19th Century costumes, which was pretty cool (is this starting to be a costume event too?)...there was one couple in costume, standing on the landing, with the General Jackson in the backround, late afternoon sun, which would have made a great pix if I had brough my camera. 

 

You really got a taste of what the glory days of the steamboat was perhaps like a bit, with all those boats in port.

 

Also, I noticed they had a ferry from Newport to Covington, too, and there was this big military landing craft in port in Covington.  It wasn't listted as part of the Tall Stacks events, so does anyone know what that was about? 

 

I must say I really didn't spend too much time with the music as the acts I would have wanted to hear played on other days..though there was an impressive gospel group that I did here, and Olabelle, which I was curious to hear.  True, the line up was heavy on the trad-based/Americana styles or genres, but that befits an event like this.

 

 

  Nothing official here, but this is what I gather:

 

  Not everything that goes on at Tall Stacks is an official Tall Stacks event. So, I'm not sure if the military landing craft was an official act or not. In any case, it was very surprising to see that on the river.

 

  The costume people, I think, are volunteers from the historical society. They have been doing that for every Tall Stacks. They simply dress up and scatter about the crowd.

The music component of this festival has taken on a life of its own.  The crowd at the Wilco show was definitely not what you would expect to see at a riverboat festival, tending toward young, hipster types.  Today, the Post reports the crowd was as big as 20,000 for that show.  My guess at the time was 15k.  Overall, the festival was amazing.  We cruised on the Natchez (from New Orleans) and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The weather certainly helped.  Had a company picnic at Fernbank Park today and saw the Natchez and Spirit of Peoria headed downstream on their way home.  I was sad to see them go, but I'm really looking forward to the next Tall Stacks!

Does anyone know when the next tall stacks is going to be, I missed the 2006 one.

Overdue for sure.