HOLTS SUMMIT, Mo. - The annual Holts Summit Firework Festival kicks off Monday, and organizers are expecting this year's version to be the largest and most diverse rendition of the festival in years.
More than 40 vendors are estimated to be on hand providing food, refreshments and more. City organizers secured two bands, pony rides and bounce houses for children.
While area residents will have a chance to enjoy the festivities, for organizers like City Administrator Rick Hess, most of their entertainment will come from helping bring residents together.
Hess spent last year as an onlooker and was taken aback by how lively and entertaining the event was.
"I had an amazing time," he said. "There were a lot of things to do. All the different people and the different food, it was a really great time."
This will be Hess' first year helping with the festival. While he was integral in setting things in motion, he was quick to defer to City Clerk Amy Burec as the person who really brought everything together.
Burec has been involved in coordinating the festival for four years, and has become a staple around the community for the work she puts into meticulous planning for the event, which usually starts around April.
"I usually get our vendors set up, create a map for the spots they're supposed to be at; I'll also help decorate the park and schedule all of the entertainment as well as our color guard and Boy Scouts that'll be in the festival," she said. "Basically, if you name it, I do it."
Burec uses most of her time at the festival to not only work but interact with residents and gain ideas for the following year.
"I love just going around and meeting the different vendors and just interacting with the crowd, making sure everyone is having fun," Burec said. "We always listen and try to get feedback to see what we can do better for the next year."
Scooter Brown Band headlines concert
Along with the fireworks, the headline for this year's festival will be the Scooter Brown Band. The band signed with Nashville talent agency APA shortly after performing at last year's Holts Summit festival.
The band, formed in 2005, has gradually become a mainstay in the country music scene after tours across their home state of Texas and the Midwest. With two of the four members being former veterans, the band has gained notoriety for its outreach in the veteran community, as well as numerous fundraising campaigns with veterans' support groups.
While Burec was responsible for booking the act again this year, she said the relationship with the band was established by Holts Summit Police Chief Kyle McIntyre, a former Marine.
"I met Scott Brown in Colorado several years ago for the Danny Dietz Foundation, and Brown was playing at that benefit," McIntyre said. "With us both being Marines, we eventually started talking. So when we started looking for a band last year, I reached out to him and eventually got them down here to play. It seemed like everyone liked them."
The reason the band will be returning is the hospitality they received and the overall production value of the show.
"They put on such a great firework show in Holts Summit," Brown said. "You kind of don't expect it with it being such a small town, but they put on a great show and it's fun to watch. Last year they started the show as soon as we hit our final note, so to finish playing a show and then looking over your shoulder to those fireworks is just great."
The band is already planning to make another return in 2018.
The festival will begin at 5 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance performed by the color guard. The Str8arrow band out of Jefferson City will open for the Scooter Brown Band at 7 p.m., before the headliner takes the stage about 8 p.m. The fireworks show will begin about 10 p.m.