The Edwardsville Route 66 Conference is set for Oct. 29-31 at the historic Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Illinois, after it was abruptly canceled a few weeks ago.
The Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition is sponsoring the event. Online registration for the event will begin about April 1. The event is called “Miles of Possibility: The Edwardsville Route 66 Conference.”
A news release Monday provided some details:
Conference sessions will include presentations, panel discussions, and workshops by nationally- and internationally-known experts on Route 66, history, preservation, and marketing. […]
Conference attendees arriving early on Thursday, October 29, will find plenty of activities. Conference registration begins at noon at the Wildey Theatre where attendees can also enjoy an afternoon tour of the 1909 Wildey Theatre. Also running during the afternoon will be one-hour tours of Edwardsville’s national historic districts. Thursday evening’s pub crawl will include historic Route 66 taverns as well as N. Main Street breweries and wine bars.
On Friday evening, the Wildey Theatre will host a catered dinner for conference attendees followed by a concert in the Wildey auditorium. The concert, featuring the legendary Bob Kuban Band, will fill the theater with music from the Route 66 era, and at the Wildey there’s always room for dancing in the aisles!
On Saturday, the conference sessions will end in time for attendees to prepare for Edwardsville’s annual Halloween parade, an institution in the city since 1924. The two-hour parade draws crowds in the tens of thousands to downtown Edwardsvilleto see the floats, marching bands, cars, and creative costumes. The parade this year is borrowing the Blue Carpet Corridor’s official theme: “Mobsters, Miners and the Mother Road.” Feel free to attend in costume!
Cheryl Eichar Jett announced the cancellation of the conference in mid-February because of what she called logistical challenges. Follow-up messages by city officials led to backtracking and efforts to revive the event.
Jett explained the earlier cancellation in a message to the route66 yahoogroup:
A few weeks ago, when things appeared to have stalled out and time was getting shorter for prospective conference attendees to make travel plans, I felt that there was nothing left to be done but cancel so people could make plans. However, the City expressed the desire to turn things around and approve the two components of their participation so that the event could happen. I am delighted that the City of Edwardsville decided to move forward with the approval at last. The conference is definitely a go!
The conference has a dedicated URL, but it wasn’t live yet as of Monday.