Events
Local and State Wide Events
From arts festivals to celebrations of our collective history, the River Heritage Region is always buzzing with popular events. A brief cross section of annual events can be found below.
Held in on the Montgomery riverfront each May, the Jubilee CityFest is one of the state's largest music and children's festivals. The festival brings in national headliners as well as the best in regional and local performing entertainment. Past headlining acts have included such notable names as Al Green, Randy Travis and REO Speedwagon. The weekend's festivities incorporate an ArtsFest, an 8k/2-mile run and a symphony concert.
The Coosa River Whitewater Festival brings together hundreds of paddlers and spectators from all over the world. With the serendipitous foothills of the Appalachians in the background, the Coosa River winds through the downtown streets of Wetumpka. It is in this vivid setting that the Whitewater Festival pits teams of competing rafters in a number of different classes against each other.
For thousands of years, man has harvested sugar cane. As sugar cane spread into the Americas, the grinding of cane for syrup grew into a social event. Communities would gather to grind, sample, and sell the sugar syrup that would be used in everything from pastries to pork dishes. Loachapoka has long been considered to make some of the best cane syrup in the world, and the tradition of the Syrup Sop attracts thousands of visitors even today.
Oral storytelling has a long history in the South, a core part of the American folk tradition. National known storytellers gather around an abandoned Southern plantation in Selma each October to carry on this resolute art form. From ghost stories to coming of age tales, these fictions are an experience not to be missed.
Not for the faint of heart, the Rattlesnake Rodeo centers around live reptile demonstrations by professional snake handlers. If the idea makes your skin crawl, you might want to check out the car show, beauty pageant, karaoke competition, live music, songwriter competition or fireworks show instead. The two-day April event, held in Opp, attracts more than 20,000 snake-charmed visitors.
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