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Festival tastes

Sternwheel vendors brace for hungry crowd

ERIN O’NEILL The Marietta Times Randy Wilson, with the Marietta Noon Lions Club, prepares the food trailers for moving into place at the Ohio River Sternwheel Festival on Thursday. Vendors converged on downtown Marietta to line up and will be open for business this evening through Sunday of the festival.

Visitors to the 42nd Ohio River Sternwheel Festival won’t go hungry with close to 20 food vendors planning to line Front, Greene and Second streets for the three-day event.

“This will be our third year at the festival,” said Rebecca Wyatt, owner of Simply Vintage Cupcakes, based in Parkersburg. “It’s always great to meet new people and see returning customers. And the organizers are really great to work with.”

The Simply Vintage Cupcakes food truck is a 1970 Capri camper that Wyatt and her crew of three take to all the area fairs and festivals. The business offers “naked” cupcakes that can be made to whatever specifications the customer’s heart desires.

“Our most popular flavors are brownie and vanilla but our craziest concoction was probably a German chocolate bottom with lemon filling, peanut butter (buttercream) on top, lemon curd topping and an Oreo. I was a little surprised at that one,” Wyatt said.

The idea of the naked cupcake bar is to choose any one of several flavors of cupcake and fill it and top it with a variety of fillings and toppings available. Simply Vintage Cupcakes has gluten-free and vegan varieties as well.

Photo submitted by Rebecca Wyatt A variety of toppings, fillings and cupcake flavors are available at the Simply Vintage Cupcakes truck.

“I myself am vegan and I know how hard it can be to eat at a fair but also try to be healthy,” Wyatt said.

Some of the other vendors specialize in traditional, not-so-good-for-you treats.

The Marietta Noon Lions Club has been involved with the sternwheel festival since its inception, according to member Randy Wilson. He has been helping cook and serve up their famous french fries and fish sandwiches out of the bright yellow trailer for the past five years.

“I like to work the window but I have done a little bit of everything,” he said. “A lot of people come to see us because we’re local and they know we do a lot of projects and work with youth programs.”

Another vendor that benefits area youth is the Marietta Tiger Athletic Boosters, who call their famous lemon shakes the “official drink of the festival.”

“We’ve been there ever since the festival started,” said Greg Kroft, a 32-year booster volunteer who is now involved because of his grandchildren. “The boosters have been going since 1958 and the lemon shake stand started in 1969.”

Kroft said between the sternwheel festival and the Washington County Fair, the boosters make roughly $16,000 to spread between 18 major sports from the middle school through high school.

“Each sport is offered the opportunity to work at the booth and we usually have students and parent volunteers,” he said.

Festival safety committee chairman Jon Coppernoll said the vendors were moving into place Thursday as road closures around the festival began.

“They undergo inspections, the fire department goes down there to check out the propane, the electric and the cooking areas,” he said.

The food vendors will open this evening and will be open each day of the festival. Other food offerings include cotton candy, funnel cakes, a gourmet grilled cheese truck, sausage sandwiches, deep fried onion blooms and pizza.

Food vendors

¯ Busy Bee: Breakfast and “picnic in a cup”

¯ Camp Hervida 4-H: Lemonade

¯ Cipriani’s: Chicken, variety

¯ Civitan: Sausage sandwiches

¯ Country Roads Kettle Korn

¯ DeChillis: Stromboli

¯ East of Chicago: Pizza and fried pickles

¯ Fair Foods: Cotton Candy and funnel cakes

¯ Flight of the Concessions: Smoothies

¯ Kiss Bloomin’ Onions: Deep fried onion blooms

¯ Marietta Noon Lions: Fish & fries

¯ Our Melt Bar: Gourmet grilled cheese, desserts

¯ Simply Vintage Cupcakes: Gourmet cupcakes

¯ Sprankle 1: Gyros/chicken

¯ Sprankle 2: Sausages/hamburger

¯ Sprankle 3: Fried veggies

¯ Tiger boosters: Lemonade

¯ Triple L 1: Funnel cakes

¯ Triple L 2: Corn dogs

Source: Ohio River Sternwheel Festival Committee.

Entertainment schedule

The entertainment schedule for the 2017 Ohio River Sternwheel Festival includes:

FRIDAY

≤ 7 p.m.: Steve and Bev Pottmeyer

≤ 8 p.m.: Parrots of the Caribbean

≤ 9:30 p.m.: AJR

SATURDAY

≤ Noon: Marietta High School Wall of Sound

≤ 1 p.m.: Marietta High School Choir Vocal Point

≤ 2 p.m.: The Slack Family

≤ 3 p.m.: JAB

≤ 4 p.m.: Jake Binegar

≤ 5 p.m.: The Slack Family

≤ 6 p.m.: Ultra Sound

≤ 7:30 p.m.: Jake Binegar

≤ 8 p.m.: Ultra Sound

≤ 9 p.m.: Rick K and the Allnighters

≤ 9:30 p.m.: The Harry J. Robinson Fireworks

≤ 10 p.m.: Rick K and the Allnighters

SUNDAY

≤ 10 a.m.: Alfie and Omegas

≤ 11 a.m.: Anthony Mossburg

≤ Noon: Plan B

≤ 1 p.m.: Captain James E Sands Memorial Sternwheel Races

≤ 2 p.m.: Plan B

≤ 2:30 p.m.: Adam Craig

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