Iron Horse Festival 2024

A full-day sampler of the arts for a rural audience.

One of the first ideas the Iron Horse volunteer committee came up with was having an arts festival right in downtown Holdrege. Many of us had been to arts and music festivals in other areas - why not here?

And so, we started planning for what would become the Iron Horse Festival in January-ish of 2024. We decided to host the event on September 14 - partly to give us as much time as possible to get things done, and partly because the musicians we wanted for the evening concert were available.

Our main goal was to get both vendors and demonstrators. We wanted people who’ve never seen pottery being made outside of movies to have a chance to see the process, not just buy the final product. Or people who enjoy poetry to have a chance to listen to the State Poet read his work, not just buy the book. There are so many types of art in the world and we wanted to include as much as possible for an audience that doesn’t have as much opportunity to witness art in public for free.

Artisan Expo

The daytime portion of the Iron Horse Festival was dubbed the Artisan Expo. We wanted to showcase as many types of art as possible.

We had photographers, wood carvers, culinary artists, a DJ, painters, glass artists, a weaving demonstration from the Museum of Nebraska Art, and much more!

Winners of the first Iron Horse Arts District photography contest displayed on the Phelps County Courthouse lawn.

Temporary mural artist Hal Snyder working on her piece while three young girls look on.

Photography by Victoria Harper on display in her booth.

Glass students from UNK selling their work during the festival.

Heidi Daubendiek demonstrates the art of pottery.

HHS grad Ryan Quincy gives a talk about his work on South Park and other animated television shows to a packed house at the Holdrege Sun Theater.

Paintings by Mosie's Watercolors for sale.

Erika Hammond shows off her skills in creating artistic animal garnishes.

Works by the Tri-County Porcelain Arts group, handpainted artwork on porcelain pieces.

Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason and local student Alizabeth perform poetry for a crowd.

Evening Concert on the
Flyover Country Stage.

At night, we had a concert with headliner Logan Mize, plus Luke Mills, Savanna Chestnut, Kyle Sayler Band, and Hockett. Over 500 people attended the event and enjoyed a variety of country music outside the Ironhorse Station in downtown Holdrege.

We named it the “Flyover Country Stage” as a nod to Nebraska often being considered part of flyover country, and this year it featured country music acts.