There is one thing you can count on for this Saturday’s first-ever Lemonade Daze event at Ashland City Park – there will be lemonade and it will be necessary.

With the hottest weekend of the year scheduled, Lemonade Daze volunteers and attendees will be looking for that lemonade to keep them cool.

“There will be lemonade there on Saturday,” assured Jessi Kendall, one of the Park Board organizers, “and it will be sold by Middle School students.”

Kendall said there will be no shortage of refreshments to cool off the crowds as there will be food vendors – including the Kona Ice vendor – and a beer garden which opens in the afternoon at the city’s recycling lot off of Redbud Street.

(Due to the events, the recycling will be closed on Saturday and re-open on Monday.)

The beer garden will include live music, a poker tournament – which acts as a fund raiser for the Park Board – and plenty of fun.

Kendall said she is not worried about the heat.

“I’m looking forward to the community pulling together and I’m looking forward to enjoying our park,” Kendall said. “I think the Park Board and the Lemonade Daze committee has done a great job in planning Saturday’s events.”

What was previously the Ashland Fall Fest, which was canceled last fall, has turned into one of the first festivals of the summer in Mid-Missouri.

“We are not competing with other festivals – don’t want to be compared to the Pumpkin Fest,” Kendall said. “There are plenty of other things going on in the fall and fewer conflicts in early summer. Plus we have many more local groups involved.”

~ Find out more in today’s Journal ~

by Bruce Wallace