St. Albans RiverFest will bring new family-oriented entertainment for its 21st year in St. Albans Roadside Park.
RiverFest will begin at 5 p.m. today with an opening ceremony. The free concerts and entertainment will last until Sunday night.
New this year will be carnival rides, zip lining and karaoke.
Beth Given, secretary on the RiverFest Board of Directors, said the idea behind bringing in carnival rides was to prevent children from becoming bored and to allow parents to relax.
"The parents like to come and listen to the music, but it was more of an attraction to keep the families here longer, to keep the kids happy and attract more people," Given said.
Given said there will not be any "noisy" rides where guests scream because organizers don't want to override the concerts.
While RiverFest is a free event, there will be a small fee to ride the rides.
Tonight's concerts will have a country theme with Colton Pack from "The X-Factor" and David Adam Brynes. Friday night's concerts will revolve around oldies tunes with performances by the bands Esquires and Departure. On Saturday night, the RiverFest Idol winner will be determined.
Given said she is especially excited for the Journey tribute band, Departure, to perform on Friday night.
She said their Journey covers are "uncanny" to the original Journey songs.
On Saturday there will be the RiverFest Tom Knox Memorial 5K race at 8 a.m. Following the race will be a parade at 11 a.m. At 9 p.m., there will be fireworks, which Given said is always a crowd favorite.
In addition to free entertainment, there will be around 50 food and craft vendors at RiverFest this year. Given said some vendors are coming from out of state, from as far as Florida and Alabama, and are excited to return to West Virginia.
Last year, about 40,000 people attended RiverFest over the course of four days. Given said she expects the same turnout this year but hopes more people come to celebrate the St. Albans community.
"I guess it's corny, but I'm from St. Albans, born and raised, and I have a family here now," Given said. "It's fun to give back to the community. It's a nice festival and brings in tourism for the city."
Given said the festival is family oriented and is a safe place to bring children, with police presence around the clock.
RiverFest started as a boater festival 21 years ago; now it's evolved into a festival with more family oriented entertainment. Sternwheelers, such as the P.A. Denny, will be on display all four days.
For more information on RiverFest, visit saintalbansriverfest.com.
Contact writer Laura Haight at 304-348-4872 or laura.haight@dailymailwv.com.