The Route 66 Alliance announced Friday that Kingman, Ariz., would be the host city for the 2014 International Route 66 Festival.
The Aug. 13-17 festival is more than a year away. But based on a Sunday report in the Kingman Daily Miner newspaper, the town already is preparing for it.
It will include events at the Hualapai Mountain Resort; an exhibit of Route 66 authors, artists and collectors at the new events center in historic downtown Kingman; a film festival featuring movies that were filmed on Route 66, in Kingman or feature Andy Devine; a bowling tournament; a golf tournament; tours of Desert Diamond Distillery; activities in Hualapai Mountain Park; and car cruising at night.
It will also feature a special edition of Kingman’s Chillin’ on Beale car show with an exhibit of alternative energy vehicles. Hinckley and Wagner hope to get a very special guest for the display that night, a 1902 electric Studebaker owned by Don Robertson of Jerome, Ariz. The car still runs.
They also hope to install electric recharge stations along Route 66 for the festival and turn the historic highway into one of the first electric highways in the nation.
Route 66 author and photographer Jim Hinckley probably deserves a lot of the credit for Kingman landing the festival; he and Josh Noble, executive director of tourism at the Kingman Chamber of Commerce, and Steve Wagner from Re/Max pitched Kingman for more than a year to the Alliance.
If you question having a festival in Arizona in August, keep in mind that Kingman sits at 3,300 feet elevation, moderating the desert heat considerably. The average high temperature that time of year is 93 degrees with low humidity.
(Image of Kingman, Ariz., by Marcin Wichary, via Flickr)
now we need to announce the place & time for the 2015 festival so foreign travelers can make plans to attend.
Does George Maharis make personal appearances today? And what is he doing today? We miss him!