New children’s festival launching in Cleveland

A new children’s festival will make its debut in Cleveland, Tennessee, on Saturday, Aug. 3 — and it’s free.

The first Cleveland Kool-Aid Festival will open at 9:30 a.m. on the Cleveland Greenway, 755 Raider Drive. It’s being launched by Mountain View Event Solutions, the same company that put on the Maypop Festival.

From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., there will be all sorts of activities to entertain children – bounce houses, petting zoo, pony rides, foam pit, chalk art — along with live music and crafts vendors for parents to enjoy.

“My 6-year-old nephew and I go to a lot of festivals together, and he wanted to throw his own festival,” says Corey Mantooth, owner of Mountain View Event Solutions. “I asked what he wanted to call it, and he said the Kool-Aid Festival.”

As the Kool-Aid Man would say, “Oh, yeah!”

It ‘s a great choice for a title because love for the flavored drink mix spans three generations from kids today through their baby-boomer grandparents who grew up drinking that household treat.

Mantooth says he contacted Kool-Aid before announcing any plans, and received the drink company’s permission to celebrate Kool-Aid. So, of course, there are Kool Aid-themed events to make a splash at this opening festival.

“A lot of vendors are doing something cool with Kool-Aid,” says Mantooth. “We’ll have Kool-Aid play-dough, Kool-Aid foods, Kool-Aid shake-ups, Kool-Aid hair dye and fried Kool-Aid. We will also have an appearance by the Kool-Aid Man.”

There will be a variety of concessionaires selling foods ranging from barbecue to shaved ice and kettle corn.

Although it is free to get in, Mantooth is asking visitors to bring either school supplies for donation to Cleveland schools or a new toy for donation to YCAP.