Independence, otherwise known as “Queen City” where the California, Santa Fe and Oregon wagon trails commenced, will be celebrating its storied history with a festival on Labor Day.
The 53rd annual SantaCaliGon Days Festival—named for the three historic trails—draws around 200,000 visitors to Independence every year. This year’s festival will be headlined by country music artist Phil Vassar on August 30.
Although the first three trails festival was held in 1940, it wasn’t until 1973 that it became a reliable annual city tradition. To honor the historic significance of the Queen City, SantaCaliGon maintains a “Main Street 1849” section, which recreates the look and feel of the pioneer era.
SantaCaliGon Days director Amy Knipp says that when the festival was revived in 1973, the focus was to “play into the Old West theme.” She recalls attending and seeing the city’s sheriff dress up in costume and historic reenactments of pioneers and wagons headed out west. Knipp says that from there, SantaCaliGon Days has grown significantly, adding arts and crafts booths along with entertainment.
In addition to the mainstage, there’s a community stage where local talent are the stars. Mikealene Evans, the Independence Chamber of Commerce’s director of marketing, is also the festival’s stage manager and says a highlight of the festival is seeing “floods” of people watching family members perform.
“That’s just our sense of community,” Evans says. “It gives them a place to just be creative and show off their talent locally.” The community stage also hosts the all-important ice cream eating and root beer chugging contests.
Evans and Knipp both say that the most significant part of SantaCaliGon is the “economic impact” that it creates, giving local nonprofits a fundraising avenue. “It might be dance troops, it might be Scout troops, it might be churches or youth groups, and they make a ton of money,” Knipp says.
Heather Browne is the president of MelRoe’s School of Dance’s Booster Club. She, alongside other dance parents, is preparing supplies for their “Bright Purple Booth,” where they will be selling hand-rolled pretzels to support their competition dance team.
Knipp says that SantaCaliGon Days is “truly a slice of Americana,” with all of its history, as well as the artists, musicians, vendors and visitors who are both local and out-of-state.
“It’s all shapes and sizes and levels and a whole big melting pot of people that come to enjoy the festival,” Knipp says.
