The 68th Madison Regatta gets new life with Roostertail Music Festival, Points Race and Championship.
The Madison Regatta features the fastest boats in the world, H1 Unlimited hydroplanes and Grand Prix World hydros, racing for points and a championship. This year, it will include a two-night music festival: The Quaff ON! Roostertail Music Festival presented by Belterra Casino Resort. The Festival will take place on July 6 and 7 in Madison’s Bicentennial Park on the Auto-Owners Insurance Stage.
Named for the trail of water that shoots up behind a hydroplane, this is the first year for The Quaff On! Roostertail Festival. It promises to be Kentuckiana's best new music festival. Organizers hope the music can expose younger festival goers to the speed and power of unlimited hydroplane racing and the beautiful river town itself, taking notes from the Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit and the Kentucky Derby’s Thurby successes.
Tickets are $20 for music-only wristbands, $35 for racing-plus-music wristbands, and $90 for two wristbands and camping. Fans can purchase wristbands at the Regatta Office on Vaughn Drive.
Gates open Friday and Saturday at 4:30 p.m. with music kicking off at 5 p.m. and ending around midnight. Racing will commence at 10 a.m. Saturday & Sunday mornings. Saturday night's activities will feature the American Legion Post No. 9 Fourth of July fireworks show preceding the headlining act.
The music festival will feature country music phenoms, the Turnpike Troubadours who just recently sold out Red Rocks Amphitheater, backed up by some of the best regional and national country and rock acts around, including Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, the Quiet Hollers, The High Divers, Brother O' Brother, Rusty Bladen, J.D. Shelburne, Bigfoot Yancey, Nick Dittmeier and the Sawdusters, Roots of a Rebellion, and more!
Indiana native Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band said, “The Regatta is an institution and treasure of Southern Indiana. Now that there is a music festival associated with it, we hope it continues for many, many years.”
In addition to the great music there will be vendors, food trucks, camping, racing and fireworks. Quaff ON! will have brews available for purchase on site during music festival.
“This festival is unlike any other music festival or race in the country,” festival organizer Matt Wells said. “We have the fastest boats in the world coming to one of the most historic and beautiful river towns in America and have backed it all up with a perfectly curated list of artists, led by the Turnpike Troubadours. It’s a lineup we feel we can hang our hat on.”
