Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Mike Duerst shares the 2026 Dixon Petunia Festival lineup

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Talk Line: Mike Duerst shares the 2026 Dixon Petunia Festival lineup · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty WIXN.
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  Speaker 1: It's eight forty three on your Wednesday morning and we're
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  Speaker 1: back for more talk line and I am joined as promised,
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  Speaker 1: and I know you're all been waiting for this. The
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  Speaker 1: VP of Entertainment for the Dixon Petunia Festival, musician and
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  Speaker 1: just all around great guy, Mike Durst, Sir, how are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing well, a little bruised and battered from pulling
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  Speaker 2: this all together and just the slog of being part
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  Speaker 2: of a big festival planning. But we're ready to go. Yeah, coffee.
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  Speaker 1: I've got my mug right behind you, man, So I
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  Speaker 1: completely understand.
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  Speaker 3: And Mike and I were talking a little bit before
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  Speaker 3: this gone on.
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  Speaker 1: Mike's a musician, so it's definitely probably a switch being
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  Speaker 1: on this side of promo.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. It is.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as a as a musician, I guess keeping my
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  Speaker 2: head down, being terrified and then taking the stage feels
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  Speaker 2: like you just go into a feu state, get it done,
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  Speaker 2: then walk off stage and you've done your job. But
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  Speaker 2: the promotion, you know, this is taking care of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of working parts all the time.
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  Speaker 3: So I gotta imagine.
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  Speaker 1: The great thing is is that everybody loves this festival.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody looks forward to it each year. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: all you guys have got to do is put it
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  Speaker 1: together and let us know what's happening. And if you
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  Speaker 1: build it, they will come.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a bit of that. There's a bit of that.
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  Speaker 2: I absolutely love this festival. It's, you know, something I've
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  Speaker 2: been doing for thirteen years. Maybe really I think I
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  Speaker 2: started in twenty thirteen. It's a blur, Yeah, it's a blur,
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  Speaker 2: but yeah, just kind of cruising into the festival. It's
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  Speaker 2: a you know a lot of people working hard behind
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  Speaker 2: the scenes to get this thing ready to go for
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  Speaker 2: the fourth of July celebration, and then once the festival hits,
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  Speaker 2: just a war of attrition work from you know, from
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  Speaker 2: ensuring that waters are stocked to taking out the trash
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  Speaker 2: to you know, just all the details and all the
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  Speaker 2: little things major porta potties get cleaned and all the
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  Speaker 2: good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of moving parts. All of us who attend,
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  Speaker 1: we're just we're just there looking towards the music and
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  Speaker 1: you know, some food and some good times and you
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  Speaker 1: guys a running a million different parts, and it's always
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  Speaker 1: a fantastic job that gets done.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I got to imagine all the chaos leading up to it.
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  Speaker 1: I would hope maybe once it goes down and everything's
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  Speaker 1: going great, maybe feels just as good as the nerves
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  Speaker 1: floating away when you take a stage and start to play.
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  Speaker 3: I'm hoping. Anyways, Yeah, yeah, it does. I think.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know if my parents would appreciate this, but
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  Speaker 2: I think that maybe some experiences that I had in college,
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  Speaker 2: some gathering, some get togethers, prepared me for the all
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  Speaker 2: the gritty details of throwing a big old party.
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  Speaker 1: Some just some club meetings, mom and dad, nothing, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just after class for sure. So for anybody who you know,
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  Speaker 1: maybe this is their first festival or they've just been
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  Speaker 1: hiding under a rock and Dixon all these years, give
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  Speaker 1: us a quick breakdown. When's the festival happening this year
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  Speaker 1: and what can we expect? The what's the lineup? That's
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  Speaker 1: what everybody's wanting to hear this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Gotcha, Well, the festival starts. The festival is a yearly celebration.
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  Speaker 2: It's been going for I believe this sixty two years.
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  Speaker 2: Here in Dixon and we you go from this year,
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  Speaker 2: we'll be going from Thursday, July second through Sunday, July fifth,
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  Speaker 2: with on On Sunday, the close of the festival is
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  Speaker 2: the fireworks.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, as usual as usual.
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  Speaker 2: But our lineup on Thursday we have from five thirty seven.
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  Speaker 2: We have the two stages, so we got the Reagan Stage,
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  Speaker 2: we got our main stage, and on Thursday July second,
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  Speaker 2: Reagan Stage, we start from five thirty seven with two
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  Speaker 2: Struck Johnson and then we go from seven to eight
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  Speaker 2: thirty at that main stage with the Gingers, eight three
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  Speaker 2: to nine thirty with band after the Fall, and then
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  Speaker 2: come back to that main stage nine thirty to eleven
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  Speaker 2: with a band called Louder now emo pop punk band,
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  Speaker 2: and then the after party will be Lunchbox Legends on
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  Speaker 2: on that Thursday.
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  Speaker 3: Nice, I got it.
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  Speaker 1: I got it, ask because you know, I've never organized
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  Speaker 1: anything other than a garage sale, and.
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  Speaker 3: My wife had to supervise that.
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  Speaker 1: How how do you go about you know there, I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure there's got to be so many fantastic bands, you know,
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  Speaker 1: out there to kind of search and and and scout from.
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  Speaker 1: How do you guys end up coming coming up with
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  Speaker 1: the lineup at the end.
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  Speaker 2: Through a lot of just background research, we are pulling names,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of a lot of musicians and bands submit
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  Speaker 2: their work to the Petunia Fest email and we go
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  Speaker 2: through those. We kind of sit back and think of
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  Speaker 2: think of themes that we kind of want to hit,
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  Speaker 2: genres of music that we haven't done in the past
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  Speaker 2: so we can kind of keep it fresh, and then
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  Speaker 2: just take all of these ideas, kind of throw them
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  Speaker 2: into a hat and then start pulling them, discussing them,
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  Speaker 2: and I don't know, sifting through so we find the
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  Speaker 2: ones that are going to fill spots that we think
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  Speaker 2: will really make for the kind of overall picture that
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  Speaker 2: we want to see for the festival.
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  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: I got to imagine there's probably some some hours spent,
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  Speaker 1: you know, just just listening to music, which is probably
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  Speaker 1: got to be the coolest part of that considering everything
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  Speaker 1: else you have to manage.
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  Speaker 3: It is it is.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I very much enjoy you know, diving in and
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  Speaker 2: peeling through listening to music that people have done, music
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  Speaker 2: that people are are putting out currently, going out to
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  Speaker 2: shows myself, and enjoying live music in the area. So yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's it's just kind of flooding the zone and then
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  Speaker 2: picking the ones that are going to fill the spots.
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  Speaker 2: We can't every year. We can't, you know, get everybody
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  Speaker 2: in there that we you would like, But we do
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  Speaker 2: our best every year and hopefully the audience enjoys it.
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  Speaker 1: They you know, you all you have to do is
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  Speaker 1: go downtown during the festival and you can tell how
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  Speaker 1: much people are enjoying it. I mean, it's just such
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  Speaker 1: a fantastic event. It doesn't matter, you know, kind of
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  Speaker 1: what you're into. There's such an array of music, there's
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  Speaker 1: activities going on, the culmination of the firework show, something
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  Speaker 1: everybody always looks forward to. If you're not a veteran
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  Speaker 1: of the firework show, get on one side of the
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  Speaker 1: bridges or the other, depending on where you're coming from.
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  Speaker 1: That's the side of the bridges you want to pick,
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  Speaker 1: because everybody's there.
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  Speaker 3: It is.
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  Speaker 1: It is just packed and I have always said it's
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  Speaker 1: one of the few things that I enjoy opening my
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  Speaker 1: wallet and spending money on, is live entertainment. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you can collect your things and have stuff, but what's
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  Speaker 1: going to stick with you later are memories of that.
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  Speaker 1: I will still be telling my kid, my grandkids you know,
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  Speaker 1: the time that I saw a tool and concert, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and then getting out and getting to see all these
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  Speaker 1: other bands.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I actually have conversation with my kids about the different
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  Speaker 1: musicians they like, and they'll off and tell me, ah,
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  Speaker 1: this guy is music so good, you know, I just
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  Speaker 1: don't understand why he's not bigger, And I'm like, buddy,
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  Speaker 1: there are so many musicians out there that are undiscovered
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  Speaker 1: that you should. You need to attend smaller shows, you
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  Speaker 1: need to attend festivals because these people may may never
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  Speaker 1: make it that big, but you still remember and you
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  Speaker 1: still feel I guess maybe blessed is the best words.
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  Speaker 1: Not even a spiritual thing, but like to have gotten
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  Speaker 1: to hear that music and to feel like you were
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  Speaker 1: witnessed to it.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The making it a moment, yeah, is really something that
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  Speaker 2: as a musician, you know, making it a moment, making
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  Speaker 2: it so the people who aren't there are missing out
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  Speaker 2: is kind of the mindset that you want to go
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  Speaker 2: into performing with. And I think that at the Petunia Festival,
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  Speaker 2: they're looking out in the crowd, you know, after thirteen years,
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  Speaker 2: looking out in the crowd, you're seeing young you know,
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  Speaker 2: young kids that are that are watching these shows, and
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  Speaker 2: with thirteen years in there, I've seen young kids who
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  Speaker 2: are watching these shows go to adults that keep coming
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  Speaker 2: back here after.
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  Speaker 3: Bringing their young kids. Yeah, absolutely passing it down.
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  Speaker 1: It's a generational pastime here in this area, and that's
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  Speaker 1: why it's always so huge. So I love that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just the work and the dedication that goes into it.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. I appreciate that we have something like
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  Speaker 3: this in our town.
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  Speaker 1: You know, not every community our size has something like this,
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  Speaker 1: or you know, dedicates their time and their resources to
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  Speaker 1: making sure it happens every year the way that we do.
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  Speaker 3: So we're really fortunate in that. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The the one the one year and Petunia Fest wasn't
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  Speaker 2: able to roll was the year COVID.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, but yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 1: It took a federal order to stop Dixon from having
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  Speaker 1: their their weekend of music here. Yeah, and by god,
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  Speaker 1: if we could have got away with it, it would have
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  Speaker 1: been all right.
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  Speaker 3: I think I would have listened to it remotely. If
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  Speaker 3: the Feds wouldn't have stopped the party, we would have.
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  Speaker 1: Mike anything else you wanted to share about the Festival
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  Speaker 1: of the line of anything.
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  Speaker 4: Today, The well, the the one thing that I would
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  Speaker 4: share is that we're still sitting just I'm just waiting
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  Speaker 4: for this country headliner to to be able to announce it.
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  Speaker 3: I know who it is, right.
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  Speaker 2: And so we're just waiting for those business aspects to
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  Speaker 2: get cleared up so I can go ahead and announce it.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm on pins and needles to say it, but
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  Speaker 2: I can't say it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh well, there you go, a reveal and a teaser
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  Speaker 1: all in one show.
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  Speaker 3: Mike.
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  Speaker 1: We'll be looking forward to that, and I'll be as
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  Speaker 1: soon as you blurt it out, I'll be blabbing it
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  Speaker 1: all over the airwaves. So you're just going to have
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  Speaker 1: to stay tuned out their wake and crew. Mike, thank
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  Speaker 1: you so much for coming in sharing all this wonderful information.
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  Speaker 1: If anybody wants any information about the Petunia Festival anything
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  Speaker 1: we talked today, what's the best way to do.
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  Speaker 2: That online Petunia Festival dot org.
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  Speaker 1: There you go go online, mark it on your calendars,
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  Speaker 1: make sure you got your butt down there, bring a
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  Speaker 1: lawn chair.
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  Speaker 3: Mike. Thanks again, thank you,