The Belle of Louisville, Natchez, and Majestic preparing for 2006 Tall Stacks
The Belle of Louisville docks next to the Natchez in Cincinnati for Tall Stacks.

Tall Stacks, formally known as the Tall Stacks Music, Arts, and Heritage Festival, was a festival held every three or four years in the Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, area, which celebrated the city's heritage of the riverboat. The sixth (and, to date, final) edition was held on October 4 to 8, 2006. The festival typically featured a number of vintage and replica steamboats from across the eastern United States, which docked along the Ohio River shoreline in Cincinnati and across the river in Covington and Newport, Kentucky.

After the 2009 event was cancelled a festival was tentatively scheduled for 2010, but was not held due to the poor economy and lack of corporate sponsors. Organizers later set a date of October 3–7, 2012, which was subsequently also cancelled.[1]

History

The first Tall Stacks festival was held in October 1988 as a part of Cincinnati's bicentennial celebration. Fourteen riverboats made appearances in the three-day festival, which included tours of the boats, cruises and races between the rivals Delta Queen and Belle of Louisville — a renewal of their annual race during the Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. More than 700,000 people attended.

Subsequent festivals:

  • 1992: The event expanded to four days. Attendance increased to 800,000, which was the largest attendance for any event in Cincinnati until the BLINK Light and Art Festival broke the record in 2019 and again in 2022.
  • 1995: The schedule was moved up a year to prevent a near-conflict with the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The event expanded to five days and 19 riverboats. The Kentucky cities added a Civil War re-enactment to the festivities and attendance increased again to 850,000, a new record.
  • 1999: Though attendance was down, Tall Stacks '99 drew 660,000 and was named the US's top tourism event by the American Bus Association. Nineteen riverboats again traveled to the festival.
Numerous river boats along the Ohio River during the 2006 festival.

See also

References

  1. Radel, Cliff (2010-09-05). "Tall Stacks delayed by economy". The Cincinnati Enquirer.
  2. "Cincinnati steamboat festival returns with more emphasis on music, history". October 12, 2003.
  3. "Tall Stacks adding features". The Cincinnati Post. E. W. Scripps Company. April 7, 2006. p. A2. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012.
  4. "Riverboat Event In Doubt Unless Sponsors Climb Aboard", WLWT Cincinnati
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