Amazing Technicolor T-shirts

Duluth Fall Festival chairmen, committee members and volunteers showed up at the Summer Rally Thursday (June 21) wearing a kaleidoscope of T-shirts from previous festivals. They added spots of color to 2012 Fall Festival Chairman Kathryn Willis’ lush garden, the backdrop for the summer party.

The traditional “rah rah” event for the festival, this year’s rally also served as a dress rehearsal for a T-shirt ceremony at the festival's upcoming 30th Anniversary Celebration and Concert Saturday, June 30, on the . Each chairman will be introduced on the Duluth Festival Center Stage wearing the T-shirt from the year they chaired the festival or their favorite.

If they chaired it multiple times, such as Willis, several of her family members and a few others, stand-ins will be designated to wear the missing years. Other festival volunteers wearing their T-shirts also will be recognized as they line up in front of the stage.

There wasn’t a T-shirt for the first two festivals, but there has been every year since. Gwinnett Community Bank regularly sponsors the T-shirt. Festival organizers had been searching for an early “hot pink” T-shirt. No one was brave enough it wear it to the rally, but State Rep. Brooks Coleman, a repeat chairman, later reported he had found his.

Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris introduced two surprise guests at the rally, Sandi McKenna and Rick Griffin, who had just spent two days in Duluth as part of five two-member teams of amateur travelers visiting cities in a “Best of the Road” contest sponsored by Rand McNally and USA Today.

DFF organizers warmly welcomed the “Midlife Road Trip” team and broke into an impromptu rendition of “God Bless America.” The city has kept its Memorial Day flags on display in anticipation of their visit. The winners in several categories are expected to be announced July 16.

A highlight of the “The 30th on The 30th” celebration will be presenting a check to the city to pay off the $1.3-million Duluth Festival Center. Funds for the center, the site of many community activities, were raised by festival proceeds. The festival involves nearly 400 volunteers and attracts an estimated 100,000 visitors to Duluth the last weekend in September.

The entire community is invited to the anniversary celebration, which starts at 6 p.m. It will feature inflatables for the children, a festival memorabilia tent, Varsity hot dogs, and complimentary desserts. There will also be a cupcake “cake” to mark the 80th birthday of Ann Odum, Kathryn Willis’ sister. Admission to the celebration is free.

Nostalgia exhibits will include a quilt made of early festival T-shirts.

Musician Betty Seni will warm up the crowd before the concert by China Grove, a Doobie Brothers tribute band, at 8 p.m. The concert on the Duluth Festival Center Stage is free.

The Varsity will have its famous hot dogs available for purchase. Pure Taqueria will sell Margaritas from its catering truck, and Best of Brews will sell beer.

Oh, the color of the 2012 T-shirts is a closely guarded secret.