Houston, MO. – The Emmett Kelley Clown Festival is right around the corner at the end of this month, and organizers, vendors, and even the town of Houston itself is getting geared up for the three-day event that will bring a unique kind of life to their downtown.
Ozark Radio News spoke to event organizers, Shannon Jordan and Brenda Center about the upcoming festivities.
Transcript:
Nate Hudson:
This is Nate Hudson with Ozark Radio News. And today, I am speaking with Shannon Jordan and Brenda Center, both from Houston, Missouri. And we have a really cool festival coming up. What can you ladies tell us about it?
Shannon Jordan:
So we’re going to have the Emmett Kelly Festival coming up on April 28th through April 30th. It starts with the dinner at the Storm Shelter on April 28th at six o’clock with Stasia Kelly and Chris Berry. And then Friday night, we have a movie at the Melba. Ms. Brenda could tell you more about that.
Brenda Center:
So Emmett Kelly was originally from Houston, Missouri, and he was the first American clown. He developed his character during the Great Depression, and he was a hobo clown. And he ended up being on a lot of television shows and also was in the movie, The Greatest Show on Earth, which was made in 1952 and won many Academy Awards. And his daughter, Stasia Kelly, will be in from Georgia, and a circus historian, Chris Berry, and they’ll be doing a show with live clips of her dad and tell all about Emmett and the history of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. And Friday night, the movie highlights a story about the Barnum & Bailey Circus and just what a circus was like when they did the Big Top back in 1950s and ’60s.
Nate Hudson:
Well, that sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. And it’s more than just the movie. There’s going to be a parade. There’s going to be a 5K run. Can you tell us a little more about the 5K?
Shannon Jordan:
So Saturday is when we’re going to have the parade and the 5K, and we’re also going to have a car show and live music and vendors and food trucks. The 5K registration begins at seven o’clock in the morning at Lone Star Plaza, Downtown Houston, Missouri, and the race kicks off at 8:00. And following the race, there’ll be a Fun Run Downtown. It’ll go down Grand Avenue. There’ll be prizes for the fastest female and the fastest male, and then prizes for each age category as well.
Brenda Center:
We also are encouraging people to dress like a clown to be in the 5K and in the Fun Run because we’re going to give a prize to the best dressed clown in the parades that day.
Shannon Jordan:
And we’ll have our Dutch oven cookers downtown that morning to cook biscuits for our runners. Fun activities going on downtown, there’ll be school groups, a dunk tank with the Police Department for Houston.
Brenda Center:
Yes, we’re going to have live music, starts at nine o’clock with the Houston High School Jazz Band. And then we’ve got individual singers that’ll be performing on the hour all day. And the STARS Foundation will be showing the greatest… They’ll be performing The Greatest Showman at three o’clock and at seven o’clock on the Saturday. And throughout the day, the STARS Foundation will have some balloon art going on downtown, and they’re also going to open up the facility. And if you want to borrow a clown outfit to wear for the day, they’re going to let us use their clown outfits. So we can just have clowns all over town.
Nate Hudson:
I know that there are still a few vendor positions open. Would you like to talk about that a little bit?
Shannon Jordan:
Sure. So we have some vendor spots open. The booths are $20 a piece. If you need power, it’s $35. But I ask that if you do need electricity, that you need to contact City Hall before April 9th. So we can have that all set up. We have spaces for food trucks available, any kind of carnival food will be amazing to have. And then we have a car show that morning. So we need people to register their cars. It doesn’t have to be classic. It could just be an awesome car that you want to enter to a show. So there’ll be awesome prizes for that.
Brenda Center:
Something very special that we’re doing is Emmett Kelly was not only a clown, but he was an artist. And he did a self-portrait of himself. And we have had a quilt made. They have embroidered his picture that he drew of himself with the year he did it, with his autograph on the card that they designed it from. And it is on eBay. And you can go through the city website to make a bid on the quilt. And all of the money from the quilt will go to the Houston High School for Scholarships, for the Art and Theater Department.
Nate Hudson:
Is there anything else you ladies would like to add?
Shannon Jordan:
We’re going to be having the Action Farms Exotics, and she’ll be set up with a couple exotic animals, like sloths. I’m not really sure what she’s going to bring, but it’s going to be an amazing thing. Our main sponsors for our event is Westport Pools and ACRS. We do appreciate everything that they’ve done. They’re our platinum sponsors.
Brenda Center:
And then you can find our information and everything, you can download a 5K run form or pick one up at the city, you can bid on the blanket or the quilt through our city website, houstonmo.org. You can find out all you need to know about the event in also our Facebook page.
Shannon Jordan:
Yes. If you look up Emmett Kelly Festival, it’ll have all the information that you need on Facebook there. You can email me, text me, call me, come by. Whatever you need to do, I’m I’m there at your disposal.
Brenda Center:
This is going to be a fun weekend for families to learn the history of Houston, learn about someone very famous from Houston, and then just have a fun time.
Shannon Jordan:
Yes.
Nate Hudson:
All right. Well, thank you both. I appreciate it.
Shannon Jordan:
Thank you.
