Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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At first glance, Roanoke seemed to have been overlooked again.

In its current issue, Blue Ridge Outdoors, a free magazine published in Charlottesville and devoted to hip, outdoor activities and entertainment, singles out the top 50 festivals in its circulation area.

The area extends from Baltimore to Atlanta.

Not one of Roanoke's longtime festivals made the top 50 list. Five of Asheville's did.

The Blue Ridge Blues & BBQ Festival earned a spot on another list compiled by the magazine, Best New Festivals. It will occur for the second time July 21 in downtown Roanoke.

In 1988, the late Mayor Noel Taylor envisioned Roanoke as Virginia's Festival City.

It was a great name, but it never happened.

What kept the Star City's other festivals off the All Star list?

Basically, a lack of risk-taking, said Jedd Ferris, the magazine's senior editor, who put together the festival feature.

On the line

In Asheville, promoters present bold music lineups -- indie bands, newgrass music and such -- in scenic settings.

Ferris, 28, knows the Roanoke Valley has the scenic beauty. He has experienced it while mountain biking at Carvins Cove and strolling on the City Market.

The town is hipper than he thought, too. But its festivals tend to be conventional.

Guilty, says Larry Landolt, executive director of EventZone, the nonprofit organization that contracts with the city to promote, facilitate, schedule and advise festivals.

"We're not in a position to take a lot of financial risks," he said. "I'm not that concerned that we're not on there."

Both he and Ferris say an amphitheater could enhance the entertainment offerings. But unless a private promoter wants to put his money on the line, broad appeal will continue to dominate EventZone's programming.

Bold move.

The nonprofit Blue Ridge Blues Society sponsors the Blue Ridge Blues & BBQ Festival. It gave $2,000 from last year's proceeds to Total Action Against Poverty for the Dumas Center for Artistic Culture and Development and kept a like amount for itself.

This year, 15 acts, led by nationally known Mighty Sam McClain and his Mighty, Mighty Band, will perform.

EventZone is staging the Big Lick Blues Festival in September, an event that will replace the long-running Taste of the Blue Ridge Blues and Jazz Festival. The blues society supports the effort, says Kerry Hurley, its president.

Regionally, Southwest Virginia made the top 50 with a bike festival in Forest, Trail Days in Damascus, Wine Down the Music Trail and the FloydFest in Floyd and the MTB Fest at Douthat State Park.

Ferris intended to include the Blue Ridge Music Festival in Salem. Last year its headliners included bluegrass superstar Ricky Skaggs.

There will be no festival this year.

"It didn't make money" for the Tennessee promoter, said Carey Harveycutter, Salem director of civic facilities. "It drew less the second year than the first."

Taylor's dream of a Festival City seemed doomed to founder from the start. Roanoke is so much smaller than Richmond and cities in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia that the locals can support only so much.

And, though beautiful, it is relatively remote.

EventZone plans to pay for out-of-market publicity for its blues festival and for next year's Cabin Fever Beach Music Festival, a big hit this year. Landolt hopes that 2,000 to 3,000 people will fill the expanded exhibit hall for that.

Roanoke's St. Patrick's Day Parade and Celtic Festival is "a real big tourism generator," Landolt said.

And it's fun, though probably not hip.

Ferris, the outdoor publication's senior editor, has his eye on the name-talent format featured by 202 Market in downtown Roanoke.

If that format is successful, perhaps a festival of such talent will follow, he says.

Still, somebody will have to cough up the money and take the risk.

For now, the Blues & BBQ thing is the city's only presence among the newsprint publication's choices.

"I'd be more upset if [our festivals] were not listed in some of the Roanoker and City Magazine's best events of the year," Landolt said.

"We are truly a reflection of the community in the type of events we do."

All together now: Sigh.