Rocket City SpaceFest – Splashdown!

As we reach the conclusion of the Rocket City Space Fest, Alex Hall talks to organizer and chief evangelist of the event, Ralph Petroff, about the highlights and pain points of the festival and what next year could be like.

(image courtesy Rocket City Space Fest (McArthur Visuals and Bush Drone Data)

Transcript (automatically generated)

Alex Hall
I’m Alex Hall, host of WLRH’s Curiosity Squad. Rocket City Space Fest concludes tonight with a splashdown celebration in downtown Huntsville. The festival came together in just a matter of weeks by connecting events already planned across the city.

I spoke with organiser Ralph Petroff about its unexpectedly large first year, what didn’t go entirely to plan and what could come next. What’s been the highlight for you so far, Ralph?

Ralph Petroff
The highlight? Oh my goodness, there have been so many. I mean, to see at the concert in the park, we thought, well, maybe we kind of expected 5,000 people.

We kept our fingers crossed that there might be 10,000 people, but it looks like it was probably 20,000. They should have official numbers soon. So to see that level of support for an event that didn’t get green-lighted until last month, and to see the cheers and the celebration, it was so gratifying because you just see the enormous support for a festival like that.

And, of course, it would have been impossible without our many corporate sponsors, and they deserve so much credit, as do all the volunteers who literally came out of the woodwork to help.

Alex Hall
So things came together very, very quickly, and there’s obviously been some amazing highlights, but presumably there’s also been a few pain points.

Ralph Petroff
Oh, yes, they have. And, you know, the pain points is how you learn. And so partly we were victims of our own success because when you expect 5,000 people and you get 20,000, traffic is going to be bad and parking is going to be bad.

But when you’re putting together an event that was only approved in June, there are going to be some glitches. And, you know, unfortunately, the announcement telling people where to sit and where to view didn’t run. And so that created viewing issues for so many people.

And but, you know, it’s when you put something together on very short notice, something will go wrong. And that was an unfortunate thing to go wrong. But we’ll learn from this and next year we’ll be bigger and better and bolder, but I’m sure there’ll be ways to improve it.

And that’s how, I mean, von Braun would say we will never get to the moon if we do not admit our mistakes and learn from them. And we’d keep that same that same attitude at the Rocket City Space Fest.

Alex Hall
People presumably have embraced this, are people bringing forward ideas for next year? What are you thinking might be in the pipeline?

Ralph Petroff
Oh, you have no idea. Just to give you an idea, I saw pictures from Montesano, residents on Montesano who had taken photographs and it looked terrific. And then someone said, well, why don’t we just put all the drones on Montesano and then we can sync it up on a radio, which WLRH certainly has the capabilities to do so that instead of 20,000 people looking at it, the whole city could look at it.

So, you know, this is the scope of the imagination. And other people say, well, drone shows are great, but let’s do something else. But, you know, next year we want to go big.

And going big means things like a space music fest, a space film festival, a space art show. The largest collection of science fiction art in the world, the Ordway Collection, is in the UAH archives. And it would be fabulous to have those publicly displayed.

Alex Hall
You’re setting up a formal organization, 501C3 is in process. Do you envisage having a festival director and people that will be doing this?

Ralph Petroff
All that will come in due time. You know, right now we’re just sort of sprinting for the finish line of a, what is this, a nine day marathon. And then we’re going to take some time, catch our breath.

And, you know, I think there is such support in the city for an event. It would certainly make sense. Volunteers can only do so much.

Alex Hall
Back in 1969, it was Splashdown that was really the first party, right?

Ralph Petroff
Well, they had a launch party because the launch is the most difficult part. I mean, look at all the problems that we have with today’s technology and almost unlimited funds of some of the private space efforts. And they struggle with launches still to this day.

So, to do that in 1969 with 128K of memory is just remarkable. But, again, President Kennedy, he didn’t say put them on the moon. He said put them on the moon and return to Earth safely.

So, yes, the celebration, and this is the beauty of the three days, launch day, landing day, Splashdown day.

Alex Hall
We’re at the conclusion of the Rocket City Space Fest celebrating arguably, I think, the most important event, the Splashdown. Tell me what’s planned.

Ralph Petroff
Well, for the Splashdown event, what more appropriate way to celebrate a Splashdown than to go to downtown Huntsville. They have the Sips and Sounds celebration, and so we’re going to piggyback on that. So, we encourage you to wear your skinny black ties and 1969 regalia and splash down some moonshots in celebration.

Alex Hall
The Rocket City Space Fest Splashdown celebration takes place this evening as part of Sips and Sounds in Jefferson Alley in downtown Huntsville. For Tennessee Valley Mornings, I’m Alex Hall.