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Live music from Stranger and Rock This Way, food trucks and a show featuring skydiving and pyrotechnics are on tap, and the entire setup will be designed to accommodate social distancing requirements from the CDC and the state.
“We created an event that has a skydiving performance from a world-renowned, world record-holding team called team Fastrax, and we included some live music because people love live music,” said Cheryl Dillin, chief brand officer of Dayton-based Dillin Corp., which is organizing the event. “We included food trucks because people love food, and we engaged a third-party researcher to help us with our parking plan so that we could maximize the social distancing while in a tailgate style so that people wouldn’t have to sit in their cars, but could certainly sit behind their car, and still fit safely with other cars around them.”
Visiting between cars will not be permitted, and groups are to be capped at 10.
“As long as your group of 10 people is socially distanced from the next group of 10 people and you’re outside — that makes a big difference — then technically you are meeting those rules in place,” Dillin said.
Coolers are permitted, but games such as corn hole or frisbee are not.
Because the entertainment will be in the sky, the organizers ask attendees not to bring flags, tents or any other item taller than 8 feet to avoid blocking the view of others.
Admission is $35 per car, $50 for an SUV and $150 for RVs.
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Proceeds are to be donated to the Clark County Agricultural Society Endowment and the Springfield Foundation Four Corners development.
“We are excited to help build both of those programs and be a part of Springfield and Clark County in a very positive way,” Dillin said.
After the pandemic and associated stay-at-home orders from the state shutdown the fairgrounds for most of the spring, executive director Dean Blair confirmed the ag society is happy to add another potential moneymaker to the calendar.
“We’re just so thrilled to have Dillin here in town doing this with us,” Blair said. “There’s no question that they are an absolute world-class event planner. And I think this is going to be the first of many things that they do with us and then to have it in addition to that be 100% to charity.
“Obviously the ag endowment being one of the charities is very exciting to us, but to share that with the Four Corners and what a hot topic the Kroger closing down has been that just brings us a lot of joy.”
All tickets will be purchased prior to the event and scanned touch-free. They were set to go on sale today and can be purchased at TheFreedomTour2020.com.
The Springfield Freedom Tour is the first of multiple events in the works from Dillin, which also has scheduled one for Aug. 22 in West Carrollton and Sept. 6 at North Pointe in West Chester.
The event in West Carrollton will benefit the One Family Fun while the one in West Chester will benefit Blue Skies for the Good Guys and Gals Veterans.
“This is such a feel good event that I believe is going to give everyone goosebumps,” Blair said. “Seeing these these skydivers come in with a flag on them and then later in the evening with fireworks on them and that sort of thing, and the music absolutely looks like it’s going to be fabulous, too, so I think to do something that’s fun, that’s community-minded and then that benefits charity and builds our community, I just can’t thank them enough. This is an outstanding event for us I believe.”
The Springfield News-Sun is among the sponsors for the Springfield event along with Littleton and Rue, Coldwell Banker Heritage, iHeart Radio and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
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