New souvenir brewed up for festival-goers this year

By HERB BROCK
Staff Writer

Souvenirs sold at the Great American Brass Band Festival generally have come in two categories: ones you can wear and ones you can listen to.

But at this year’s festival, there will be more than T-shirts and compact discs on sale at the Festival Marketplace next to Centre College’s dining commons. There will be a third category of souvenir: one you can drink.

A new souvenir has been brewed up for festival-goers this year — a special blend of coffee.

Great American Brass Band Festival Blend is a product of Big Valley Coffee Company, a Danville company owned and operated by Michael and Renee Roderiques. The coffee is a smooth, rich, Viennese-style roast comprising two types of South American coffee, separately roasted in a three-step process.

At $10 a one-pound bag, the coffee will be sold in whole bean or ground forms at the festival.

Coffee may get a lot of attention at the marketplace, but the same bread-and-butter items will be served with it, according to Baker Williams, who is marketplace coordinator with his spouse, Leslie.

“We will have the same wide array of T-shirts, pins and posters,” said Williams.

CDs from the festivals held in 1997-2001 will be available, at $15 each. “We won’t have a CD from last year’s festival but we will have the five festivals before that in stock,” Williams said.

Music from the visiting bands will be available in the form of CDs, cassette tapes or both.

The 2003 festival poster, designed by artist James Fausz of the Danville-based Idea Farm and printed at no charge to the festival committee by Host Communications, will be sold, with posters from every previous festival except for the first one in 1990, said Williams.

A 2003 festival T-shirt will be sold, as well as T-shirts from all 13 previous festivals, Williams said. Also, festival golf shirts will be available, he added.

A new pin will be sold as will pins from every previous festival, said Williams.

Festival Marketplace will open for business by 10 a.m. Saturday and remain open until a few minutes after the last band plays that night. On Sunday, it will open just after the community service is over and remain open until just after the last band plays that afternoon.

Williams said there will be “plenty of souvenir merchandise this year like previous years” but he wants to make sure there is plenty of help to sell it.

“We always need volunteers and this year is no exception,” he said. “We usually have 40 people working two-hour and four-hour shifts. We need that many or more this year.”

Anyone interested in serving as a volunteer at Festival Marketplace may call Williams or his wife at (859) 236-8140.

In addition to retail sales of the special coffee, Big Valley Coffee also will accommodate wholesale orders of the coffee. Any restaurant or store interested in wholesale opportunities can call the company at (859)236-2270.