These local wrestling promos are incredible:

'A big opportunity': Concerns build over VOA County Music Festival's rapid growth

 

As the Voices of America Country Music Festival gears up for its third year, West Chester Township is facing challenges due to the event's rapid growth.

 

The festival, which drew 20,000 attendees in its first year and nearly 30,000 in a single day last year, is causing concerns over traffic and event timing, according to a report by Business Courier news partner WKRC-TV Local 12.

 

Festival founder Tyler Wogenstahl told the Courier earlier this month he’s expecting nearly 100,000 people to attend in 2025.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/03/26/voa-country-music-fest-concerns-parking-traffic.html

 

This past weekend, the police and organizers did absolutely nothing to physically protect a music tent and a large crowd from traffic on the 5th St. Viaduct. It's really hard to believe that they only had some cones and flimsy crossbars protecting the crowd from an accident or an intentional act:

This was in the evening after the festival had already closed for the night. I walked down from Mt. Adams along Columbia Parkway on Sunday afternoon and there were metal barriers set up before you got to the porta potties and the tent. Those heavy metal barriers in an L shape that look like they have exposed teeth facing outwards.

There were also several vehicles parked in between the cones and the metal barriers, anyone who wanted to plow into the crowd would have had to sort of slalom through the vehicles and barriers first. They wouldn't have been able to attack the stage head on. It wasn't a perfect security set up, but not nearly as vulnerable as you're making it sound.

4 hours ago, OliverHazardPerry said:

This was in the evening after the festival had already closed for the night. I walked down from Mt. Adams along Columbia Parkway on Sunday afternoon and there were metal barriers set up before you got to the porta potties and the tent. Those heavy metal barriers in an L shape that look like they have exposed teeth facing outwards.

There were also several vehicles parked in between the cones and the metal barriers, anyone who wanted to plow into the crowd would have had to sort of slalom through the vehicles and barriers first. They wouldn't have been able to attack the stage head on. It wasn't a perfect security set up, but not nearly as vulnerable as you're making it sound.

I'm glad to hear that, although I don't recall these protections being there when I drove onto the viaduct on Friday and was forced to exit rather than cross the river on I-471. I'm really amazed that they didn't prioritize keeping the I-471 ramp open.

Fringe Festival offers bite-sized theater performances for every taste

For more than two decades, the Cincinnati Fringe Festival has celebrated performance as liberation, a radical vision that often showcases marginalized people with the goal of providing joy.

The two-week event kicks off May 30 at the Know Theatre in Over-the-Rhine. Producing director Katie Hartman, who is also the theater’s marketing and communications director, and Bridget Leak, Know’s producing artistic director, have been fueled by coffee and adrenaline for months.

“We have 194 performances of 42 different productions in 34 time slots over 14 days so one human can see every show,” said Hartman, not unaware that those numbers sound exhausting to anyone who isn’t involved with the logistics.

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/05/30/cincy-fringe-festival-offers-bite-sized-theater.html