MOUNT VERNON – Earlier this summer, 660 community members took the Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival’s online survey, which was meant to solicit feedback for a rebrand in 2020. According to festival board chair Joe Rinehart, a majority of the survey’s respondents were in favor of changing the festival’s name.
Nearly 54 percent (246 respondents) said they would support a festival name change, while a little over 34 percent (160 respondents) advocated for no name change. Just under 12 percent (55 respondents) said they were “not sure,” while 199 respondents skipped the question altogether.
Rinehart said there were over 170 suggestions for name changes, and the festival board is “still poring over those.”
As the festival goes through a rebrand next year, Rinehart said this summer’s survey will play a key role in the decision-making process. The board may issue a follow-up survey as well, Rinehart said, to get a refined sense of the community’s focus moving forward.
“The survey feedback is very important and we were thrilled with the responses and many of the ideas shared,” Rinehart said in an email. “The festival is for the Knox County community. Their voice and opinion matters. We are discussing a follow-up survey, but we will recap 2019 first, then have a plan and process to move towards 2020.”
When asked why people might want to see the festival’s name changed, Rinehart pointed to Dan Emmett’s association with minstrel shows and blackface. Emmett is known for writing the controversial hit song “Dixie,” but he’s also known for co-founding America’s first minstrel troupe. Emmett and his friends began a movement that – intentionally or unintentionally – would satirize, dehumanize and appropriate black culture for decades to come.
Rinehart said there were discussions about a name change in late 2017 because of Emmett’s complicated legacy (he was also an iconic musician, and arguably Mount Vernon’s most famous citizen), but those talks stalled in 2018 for unknown reasons.
The festival board did not have time to perform a full-fledged rebrand heading into this year’s festival, Rinehart noted, due to the administrative turnover that occurred just two months beforehand. However, the new board did agree to remove the minstrel silhouette from the festival’s marketing pieces.
The Dan Emmett Music & Arts Festival, as it is currently named, has been in existence since 1988. Before that, the August tradition was titled “Dixie Days,” an ode to Emmett’s hit ballad.
Name aside, the festival has always served as an opportunity for Knox County to celebrate its musical and artistic heritage. That won’t change, festival organizers have indicated.
“As a performing artist and a visual artist and an educator, it’s vital,” festival co-director Joe Bell said of the annual event. “It’s the blood of our community. You know, you have your businesses, you have your education, you have your sports, and you absolutely have to have your arts.”
While Rinehart could not say when a decision might be made on the festival’s name, he said the board would be “developing a timeline soon.”
The survey, which was publicized extensively through the festival’s Facebook page and local media sites, ran from June 28-July 15. It also asked the public about the festival’s food, youth music, headline entertainment, and its relationship with downtown businesses, as well as what makes the Mount Vernon community unique.
Rinehart said that because the board only had eight weeks to plan for this year’s festival, it has not had time to look through all the survey responses yet. Most of the survey was open-ended, he said, so sorting through the responses will take time. Rinehart did provide data on the name-change question, however, following questions from Columbus media about the ‘pulse’ of the community regarding the rebrand.
Festival organizers viewed this year as a “transition year,” given how little time they had to prepare. After longtime festival directors Pat and Sandy Crow stepped down in late April, organizers had to regroup quickly to make this year’s festival possible.
Rinehart, who volunteered with the festival for 15 years before becoming board chair this year, said he was proud of the way this year’s festival came together.
“I am very thankful to our community – they came and supported the different events and shows,” Rinehart said. “We had some great things happen… But we also know we have room to improve in some areas, especially with online registration for the fiddle and car shows. So we’ll keep working.
“I am so pleased with how well our team worked together, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyone I spoke to wants to see this celebration of the arts in our community continue. We need to have a clear mission and vision for the future of this festival and I am excited to be a part of that process.”
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