by Cory Bryars, KCBS Board Member
What started as a backyard thank you party and house warming four years ago has turned into quite the festival. FortFest25 featured 6 bands, a car show, a motorcycle show, and a kids fair. Set in a beautiful shaded City Park with tons of parking and shuttles, 1000 or more people enjoyed a beautiful weekend, all in support of local charity Care to Share Cancer Support Group.
Music kicked off Friday night with Brigett and Her Bandoliers, and what a set they did. 90 minutes of “bangers” as Brigett put it. Fantastic!
The Spooklights featuring Ben Miller and Pat Kay took the stage next, and closed the night with their unique Stomp Grass show with amazing lights, background looping, and Ben and Pat’s amazing instrumentation on guitars, banjo’s, harmonica, and much much more. They really get your juices flowing!
The kids there had over 400 kids and their parents and included a pumpkin patch with beautiful Cinderella pumpkins for sale to take home for fall decorations. There were bouncy houses giant Jenga funnel cakes and more.
The car show had almost 100 cars including beautifully restored models from every decade back to the 1920s. There were classic touring cars muscle cars a few trucks and they made quite the show spread out under the trees.
The bike show had almost 40 bikes, and to get to the show, they toured around the outer perimeter of the park for all to see AND HEAR — very cool.
Saturday’s music started at 1 with teen phenom Meaza Joy from Washington, MO. She did originals and some well known covers, closing with a great rendition of the Stone’s Gimme Shelter. Covering the stones is always a bold move, and to choose an iconic song with amazing live vocals by Lisa Fischer really showed the maturity and talent that Meaza brings to every show. It was fantastic.
Martin & the Dead Guys took the stage at 3, with special guest Mike “Shinetop” Sedovic on keys. Martin played lead guitar and vocals, accompanied by an alto sax, upright bass, and more. They did a great set with classic blues and blues rock including a great closing cover of Jimi Hendrix and they really did it justice. I had wondered what the Dead Guys part of their name meant, and Martin explained to the audience that everything they played was either originals or by artists who had passed away.
At 5, Amanda Fish brought her full band and rocked the house. If you’re thinking Washington, MO sounded familiar when you read about Meaza Joy earlier, it’s because that was Amanda’s home town for a while and Meaza has become a protege of Amanda. As would be expected whenever hearing that Amanda Fish is on stage, the vocals were strong and she a delivered a powerful combination of originals and covers.
To close out Saturday, Randy McAllister took the stage with special guest Howard Mahan. As expected, Randy’s soulful voice and amazing harmonica combined with Howard’s guitar to deliver a rousing finish to a great FortFest Saturday night.
The icing on the FortFest25 cake was Sunday’s special gospel show by Amanda and Meaza. I had asked Amanda to work on gospel last year when I booked her, and she immediately jumped at the offer. Amanda announced to the audience that she had put together gospel sets for a nursing home she worked at during Covid, and really appreciated the chance to bring them out in public. They did traditional gospel hymns, some originals, and Amanda had her mom on stage for several songs. It was a beautiful 90 minutes of acoustic guitar and amazing women’s voices filling the park and giving the audience a great start to their Sunday afternoon.
See you at FortFest26 — last weekend of September in beautiful Riverfront Park in Fort Scott, KS, a short and easy drive 90 minutes or less from KC metro.