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Residents of the city of Chelsea came together at Melrose Park to hear musical acts, enjoy food and share quality family time at the first Chelsea Kiwanisfest on Saturday, April 26 at Melrose Park. (Reporter photos/Tyler Raley)

By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – The sun shined down on the residents of Chelsea as they came together to take in the spring weather and have fun at the first Chelsea Kiwanisfest on Saturday, April 26. 

The event, hosted by the Chelsea Kiwanis Club, was held at Melrose Park in the open field next to the city’s Splash Pad and playground. 

Kiwanisfest welcomed everyone to the park from noon to 4 p.m. for a lively music festival, enjoying tunes from country singer Tyler Holmes, with Nacho Daddy performing as the headline. Nacho Daddy, a party Rock n’ Roll cover band based out of Birmingham, Alabama, played a number of rock hits from various artists and bands from throughout the years.

President of the Kiwanis Club of Chelsea Robbie Hayes expressed his excitement for how the event turned out in its first year of existence, bringing an idea to a successful reality in a popular Chelsea spot.

“I’m tickled that it came off like it did,” said Robbie Hayes, president of the Kiwanis Club of Chelsea. “This was a different event because this had been Fire at the Foothills. It’s a little bit of a risk for us to do a different event, but to have the resources we have, a stage we can get, a local radio station to broadcast, all these vendors to be out here and have the city have this piece of property that lays out like a Hollywood dome type of property to allow us to have this concert is just a wonderful thing.

Hayes complimented how easy the musical entertainment made the process of setting up for the event, expressing his gratitude for their help in bringing their equipment and helping to advertise the performance.

“All we had to do was tell them what we do it for,” Hayes said. “When we told them that, they said, ‘Where do we sign up?’ They’ve been great. They’ve come in and done almost everything that I would’ve been doing if they had not been able to do it for me… The band and everybody related to the band and the radio station were wonderful.”

In addition to the music, Kiwanisfest also hosted 17 vendors for the afternoon, including Uncle G’s Pizza Food Truck, Doug’s Wingz ‘n Thingz and Chick-fil-A, as well as local vendors like Jeremiah’s Italian Ice and even funnel cakes sold by the Boy Scouts of America.

For Hayes, he felt as if the vast number of eating options added on well to an event that was already well-organized and run, saying it brought more enjoyment to a fun time in Chelsea.

“The live music outside and a great environment is really what it’s all about,” Hayes said. “The fact that we get to have all this other stuff with it, the food trucks… It’s just a great setup to where we can have all that together. The music is what it’s all about, and to be able to have this event and to raise money while we do that through asking for donations and doing this charity work—just being able to sit out here and have this live band out here playing and use this community of Chelsea for this great event.”

Being the first-ever Kiwanisfest, there is a big hope that the success from this year’s festivities will carry into next year’s edition, possibly becoming a massive staple in the city.

“We hope one, that it allows us to do it again,” Hayes said. “We’ve already got a group booked for next year potentially to do this with us. They’ve already agreed if we hold it together to do this… The other thing I hope it does is it shows the city how we can use this piece of property for events of this nature. Maybe it’s going to make sense in the future to turn this area here into an amphitheater and have all kinds of events out here.”

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