Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the studio who detailed more of the events and sponsors for MuleFest in downtown Columbia, Tennessee this Memorial Day weekend.
Leahy: In studio with us good friend, Mayor of Maury County, Andy Ogles. I want to talk about just the details of Mule Fest coming up in downtown Columbia on the square this Friday, May 28, and then Saturday, May 29. The music will start in the square at 6 p.m.?
Ogles: That’s right. It’s 6 p.m. this Friday. I can’t believe it’s already here.
Leahy: I mean, we were talking about this months ago. Now it’s here.
Ogles: It’s here. And there’s a bit of a relief. There’s a lot of planning that goes into this and really have to give a shout-out to the business community for the amount of business support because this is funded by sponsors. There are no taxpayer dollars.
Leahy: It’s funded by sponsors. You can tell the audience who those sponsors are.
Ogles: Some of our big sponsors, one of our great builders down in Maury County, in Williamson County is John Mayor Builders.
Leahy: John Mayer builders. I know John well. A great guy and a great builder.
Ogles: And a great family and immediately stepped up excited. Guy Land is an architect out of Williamson County. He just designed Jason Aldean’s new home. They do great work. Winsupply out of Nashville, the HVAC contractors.
Leahy: So the public wouldn’t know necessarily Winn Supply but every HVAC provider in Middle Tennessee knows them.
Ogles: That’s right. And that’s just to name a few. We have probably 60 sponsors.
Leahy: 60. Now let me just step back. How did you organize 60 sponsors?
Ogles: It’s been busy. When I decided to do this there has been a lot of festivals over the year that Maury County has had that just kind of fell by the wayside. And we’re bringing those back because immediately after this, we’re planning a huge October Fest in Maury County.
And so we’ll shift gears. We’ve got our County Fair coming up. So I’ll be help planning that. And then we have an October Fest following that up. But it’s really about Maury County is such an amazing place. It’s a historic community. We’ve long lived in the shadow of “Historic Franklin.”
Leahy: In Maury County, in Colombia, in downtown Columbia, the home of James K Polk. President of the United States 1845-1849. And so if you look at your top 10 best presidents. He was number 10.
Leahy: He’s always there because he accomplished everything he said he would. He was a very effective President.
Ogles: One of the most undercelebrated presidents in American history. But yet he’s one of the best. And he’s right there from Columbia. We’ve got a great music scene that happening in Columbia.
We’ve got this revitalization or Renaissance, if you will that was really just booming prior to COVID. And that’s why I refused to shut things down based on the data that supported my decision.
But we have small businesses that depend on the economy to pay their bills and the idea that government can say, well, you’re essential, but you’re non-essential. If you’re a working family and you’re trying to pay your mortgage and put food on the table, your job is essential, whether or not the governor or whoever thinks so.
And so this is why I really fought to keep Maury County open and to be free and to support Liberty. And it’s really culminated in this music festival that it’s going to be amazing. A couple of dozen bands. I’m excited.
Leahy: So if you’re listening right now and you want to know where to find out more details, go to Maurymulefest.org. And there you can see the sponsors, John Mayer Builders, Caledonian Financial, TriGreen Equipment. Guy Land. You said Winsupply also a sponsor.
Ogles: That’s right.
Leahy: It lists all the events and how to get involved. And MuleFest gear. Are you selling hats and stuff like that.
Ogles: All kinds of fun stuff.
Leahy: That sounds fun. And the parade.
Ogles: We were talking about selling things. When you’re going to have 20, 30,000 people in the downtown community one of the first things is like, where are we going to eat? And we have over 40 food trucks are going to be on hand, plus our restaurants and then another 150 or so vendors selling just a whole assortment of crafts and things.
Leahy: It’s a place to bring your kids to. It’s a lot of fun. What’s parking is going to be like?
Ogles: And we have a Kid Zone.
Leahy: There you go.
Ogles: One of our local churches has stepped up to put that on. There is going to be music. If you want to partake, we have a whole host of craft beers that you can select from. But then there’s going to be a Kids Zone too.
And then if you’re a veteran, we have a veteran section because this is about our troops. But parking, I would say come early, you’re going to have to walk a block or two because we’re going to have a lot of people in that whole area is going to be pedestrian-friendly.
We’ll have a couple of streets blocked off to create a nice safe, two and a half, three-block square for pedestrians and children. And those again, we’re going to be out and about and having fun.
Leahy: When did you come up with the concept of MuleFest? What day? When was it? September or October? When was it?
Ogles: Yeah. So I’ve been working on this for a while. I mean, it was one of those do we call it MuleFest or did we call it Mule Du Gras? There used to be a mule Du Gras festival.
Leahy: But let me just say, MuleFest sounds better than Mule Du Gras. (Laughs)
Ogles: We had a music festival that took place for a number of years. And again, it just kind of faded away. The people that organize it and whatever. And so combining Multetown USA and music festival just kind of cramming those phrases together.
Leahy: MuleFest. So my last question, before we go to the news, who was the first sponsor to say yes?
Ogles: The first was probably two Caledonian Financial and John Mayer Builders.
Leahy: You know, it’s like you got a concept. You need a sponsor. They step up.
Ogles: Our local business owners.
Leahy: Fantastic.
Ogles: They got it immediately and they stepped up to the plate.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Andrew Ogles” by Andrew Ogles.
