By Steve Weisman
Against the backdrop of the beautiful waters of West Lake Okoboji, a bright sunny sky and a gentle northwest breeze, the 8th annual Okoboji Blue Water Festival held on Saturday, August 12 at Preservation Plaza continued to provide the general public with both a celebration of clean water efforts and challenges to continue to address clean water issues. Beginning with the Chalkstock sidewalk art early in the morning and ending with the incredible concert in the evening with A. J. Croce and headliner, Elle King, the day was jampacked with clean water opportunities for all in attendance.
(photo by Steve Weisman) – Chalkstock-happy mermaid believes in keeping Okoboji blue.
Exhibitor’s Row
Festival goers meandered through the winding sidewalk stopping to visit with different clean water organizations, gathering clean water information and in some cases joining organizations to help with their clean water efforts. According to Kate Mendenhall, president of the Okoboji Protective Association (OPA), which had one of the over 30 exhibitor booths, “Saturday’s Blue Water Festival was a huge success! The day was gorgeous, and we had a tremendous diversity of exhibitors educating about clean water. The OPA booth signed up a lot of new members and handed out all the boat trash bags we brought to give to folks to help keep litter out of our beautiful lakes. A big thanks to Greg Drees and Julie Peterson for all their work to organize the festival and to the Spirit Lake High School volleyball team for lending their muscles to help us set up and break down exhibitor booths.”
(photo by Steve Weisman) – Chase Parsons visited with many visitors at the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club booth.
Kids and Family Activities
Across the sidewalk from the Exhibitor’s Row was the area for Kids and Family Activities. Talk about action! Kids were everywhere, everywhere and having a great time: learning about clean water, getting their faces painted, doing artwork on their own special T-shirt, listening to stories and jumping on the huge inflatable! Beginning at 10 a.m., it was pretty much nonstop until 2 p.m. Whew!
(photo by Steve Weisman) – Chalkstock-happy mermaid believes in keeping Okoboji blue.
Fishing Seminar
Traveling walleye professional angler, Chase Parsons shared several key fishing presentations with over 200 in attendance. Throughout the seminar, Parsons entertained specific questions from the audience. After a quick hour, Parsons invited people to come over to the Iowa Great Lakes Fishing Club booth to talk more fishing, and according to Parsons, “We had lots of people stop by right up until they began tearing down the booths at 2:30.” After the day’s events, Chase texted me saying, “Thanks, Steve! I enjoyed the day. I’d come back anytime!” A future story will share some of his top tactics.
Clean Water Panel
These four clean water panelists, used their diverse backgrounds to share their views on water quality:
- Mike Hawkins, Iowa DNR Fisheries Biologist at the Spirit Lake Hatchery.
- Thomas Isenhart, professor at Iowa State University in Natural Resource Ecology and Management.
- Rosie Roberts, conservation agronomist with the Iowa Soybean Association.
- Jennifer Terry, project manager for the Source Water Research Assessment in Polk County.
As they answered a series of questions, and some of them tough and controversial to an
extent, they all agreed that NOW is the time to make a true difference in water quality. They also believe that people need to educate themselves, share their passion for clean water, tell their stories, and finally, if they truly want change, to get their message out to their legislators.
Moderator Joe McGovern ended the discussion with this, “It is our duty to educate ourselves and to learn more. When it comes to clean water, we can never give up!” More details will come in a future story.
(photo by Steve Weisman) – Mike Hawkins (R), clean water panelist shares a point as the rest of the panel listens.
Keynote Speaker
The Okoboji Protective Association (OPA) sponsored the keynote speaker, Jon Bowermaster, a world-renowned writer, filmmaker and adventurer, and a six-time grantee of the National Geographic Expeditions Council. Throughout his speech, Bowermaster shared that his “beat” as a writer has become the four corners of the world. It really comes down to the fact that “everything in the world is water related.” He also noted, “Most people who become involved in a clean water issue become accidental environmentalists. They never planned to get involved until the issue came near to them.”
As I let those words sink in, I thought of us here are the Iowa Great Lakes. The issues we have right now has helped many of us to become accidental environmentalists!
Following the keynote address, OPA president Kate Mendenhall reflected, “The keynote from Jon Bowermaster was inspiring and reminded us that we are connected globally in our work to improve water quality.”
(photo by Steve Weisman) – Mary Skopec (R) introduces keynote speaker Jon Bowermaster.
A break
Yes, after all of this, we needed the time to rejuvenate and get ready for the music that was to come…and by 4 p.m., concert goers began to appear and set up their “lawn chair” camps. This continued all the way until Elle King took the stage.
Master pianist, songwriter and singer
What else can you say about A. J. Croce. For over an hour he had the crowd going with his incredible instrumental and vocal talent, sharing his own songs and those of his father, Jim.
(photo by Steve Weisman) – A beautiful sunset over West Lake Okoboji set the mood for the Elle King concert.
Worth the wait
The headliner…Elle King, and, yes, there were Elle King fans from the stage all the way east up past the Big Tent. It was a free concert, so no head counts, but no doubt, thousands of people were in attendance. King most definitely rocked the Green Space and even brought up a group of youngsters to help her with a special song. Many people I visited with noted how well she interacted with the crowd before and during the concert.
(photo by Marcy Sander) – Headliner, Elle King played to a full Preservation Plaza audience.
Following the long and eventful day, co-chair Greg Drees was both tired and ecstatic. “One of the trademarks of the festival is to end the daylong water quality activities with a celebratory big-name concert. Elle King carried on that tradition. King’s musical style is so diverse, and it was certainly on full display tonight. It was an awesome end to an awesome day!”
Thanks to all
According to Drees and co-chair Julie Peterson, the 8th annual Okoboji Blue Water Festival was a truly spectacular day. Drees reflected on the day. “It was a special day all based around our clean water theme. We thank all the people who came to be part of the largest clean water event in the state of Iowa. From the presenters to the exhibitors, to the volunteers and the many sponsors, none of this could have happened without all of you! We thank you so much, and we can’t wait until 2024!”
