ROANOKE, Va. – The NokeFest Music and Arts Festival concluded today, bringing an end to a three-day celebration of Roanoke and the Southwest Virginia region.
The festival included 23 different musical acts, a local art show, and family-friendly events such as a rubber duck race, river floats, and fishing seminars.
Cody Reed is the current owner and operator of NokeFest and says that NokeFest began as a way to show people who may not live in Roanoke what the region has to offer.
“There’s a lot of good things about Roanoke,” Reed said. “The music, the art, the outdoors… we wanted to encompass that into one event.”
However, Reed believes that NokeFest is more than just the music or the art. It’s about the memories that a family can make when they come to Roanoke.
“I kind of look at this and a lot of times and it’s more than just putting on a music event or a cultural event or an arts festival, it’s about making memories,” Reed said. “Just stepping back and watching the family smile during the rubber ducky race watching the kids catch the rubber duckies. It’s really just making lifelong memories and for kids to say this is the best time of my life.”
Reed hopes that next year, NokeFest can be fine-tuned in order to keep up the family-friendly festival while making sure patrons remain safe.