Rocket City Space Fest launches July 16!

Alex Hall talks with organizer and Chair Ralph Petroff about the events of the inaugural Rocket City Space Fest and the hopes for future years.

Transcript (automatically generated)

I’m Alex Hall, host of WLRH’s Curiosity Squad. In the announcement about the events for Huntsville’s celebration of America 250, I noticed mention of a Rocket City Space Fest starting on July 16th. And as a space girl myself, I needed to know more.

So I reached out to Ralph Petroff, the chairman and organiser. Ralph, for someone who’s hearing about the Rocket City Space Fest for the first time, what is it?

Ralph Petroff
The Rocket City Space Fest is a one-of-a-kind event that was just launched two weeks ago. It’s going to be – think of it as the after-party for America’s 250th. So we’ll get things kicked off on July 16th.

And there are many arts festivals in the United States and many music festivals and hundreds of film festivals, but there’s only a handful of space fests. Most of them have to do with UFOs. Our vision – and when I say our vision, this is really – the credit goes to Matt Mandrella, the city’s music officer for this, because he suggested that we turn this celebration into a south-by-southwest type event annually that would celebrate space, science, and the arts.

And our goal is in five years’ time where Huntsville is the place where global humanity comes to celebrate the Apollo mission and the future of space.

Alex Hall
So the festival starts July 16th, ends July…

Ralph Petroff
July 24th. So think of it this way. July 16th is launch date.

July 20th is landing date, Apollo Day. And July 24th is Splashdown Day.

Alex Hall
Can you walk me through the major events that are going to be happening during that time?

Ralph Petroff
On July 16th, the USSRC is having its Beer Garden event, and it will be a themed event celebrating – this is the official launch of the Rocket City Space Fest. So we’re just launching it this year and going to go big in 2027. But what better way to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary than arguably other than signing of the Declaration of Independence, this country’s most significant achievement?

You know, 500 years from now, when you ask the question, you know, what’s the most important thing, event of the 20th century? If you study your textbooks, if they have textbooks then, the one date from the 20th century that will be remembered is 1969, the moon landing. And no city did more to help the moon landing than Huntsville, Alabama.

And of course we never got the credit because we were never on TV.

Alex Hall
I see. I see.

Ralph Petroff
Cape Canaveral was on TV all the time. Houston was on TV all the time. And if you go to Huntsville, you’d see a bunch of engineers furiously working.

And it’s not nearly as photogenic. So there’s an old story in the media business. If it’s not on TV, it didn’t happen.

Alex Hall
You mentioned the kickoff is at the Rocket Center. What are the other events that are going to happen between the 16th and the 24th?

Ralph Petroff
Yes. Well, we’re going to have at the Rocket Center, we have a special guest. And what more perfect way to kick this event off than to have the first space camper turned astronaut, Dottie Metcalf Lindenberger, science teacher too.

So, I mean, it could not be more perfect. And then on July 18th at Joe Davis Stadium, the soccer club, Huntsville Football Club, will be having a themed match celebrating space. And then Community Day, the next day, July 19th at Mid-City Market, Von Braun Astronomical Society is having an event, a library story time and much more.

And then on July 20th, Apollo Day, the anniversary of the moon landing. And we are trying, not all the details are worked out yet, but to have a massive drone show piggybacked on top of the existing concert in the park. And if we can get it all together and it’s coming together quite rapidly, that will be great.

And on July 24th, it’s open. But on Splashdown Day, I can’t think of anything better. And it’s a Friday than going downtown and splashing down a bunch of drinks to celebrate this remarkable accomplishment.

Alex Hall
Huntsville calls itself the Rocket City all the time. Do you really think we use that name without people fully understanding the story behind it?

Ralph Petroff
Well, yes, because everybody, when you say Cape Canaveral, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Boom, you know, some massive thing lifting off and it’s great visuals. When you think of Houston, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?

You think of mission control and everybody huddled over computer screens and breathless updates every few minutes. But when people think of Huntsville, they know it has some role. So I liken it to the we are the Rodney Dangerfield of space.

We don’t get no respect. And that is one of my personal drivers on this for years. You know, going around the world on business, you talk to people about Huntsville and you go, oh, didn’t they have some involvement with the space program?

And you go, oh, yes. Let me tell you why. And they go, oh, that’s interesting.

Oh, I didn’t know that. And it’s time the world knew it, because Houston may have had mission control, but Huntsville did the hardest part, building the ride, the amazing Saturn V rocket.

Alex Hall
You mentioned that you hope this will become an annual tradition and become kind of like a south by southwest. Can you talk a bit more about what your hopes are for the next few years and how you think that will come together?

Ralph Petroff
Well, yes. If you think about what the future is going to be looking like next year, it would be great to have, for example, a film festival, a space film festival. Our space roots go very deep here because Fred Ordway, the late Fred Ordway, was the imagineer behind 2001 Space Odyssey.

And if you look at Space Odyssey again, Kubrick’s wonderful film, you’ll see things like people working on iPads. All of this was envisioned years ago. So a film festival highlighting space and especially the one that we have the closest connection to, 2001 Space Odyssey, which is considered the greatest space movie ever made.

And if you haven’t seen it recently, look very closely at HAL, the A.I. person, the A.I. computer there, and you will see eerie similarities with some of the A.I. things that you’ve been reading about, about A.I. going a little wild when it feels its existence threatened. A film festival, a moon festival, an arts festival, most people don’t know that the largest collection of science fiction art in the world was the Ordway Collection, which was donated to UAH. So wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing for people to see?

It would be fascinating space history because think about the space history in this town. What better way to celebrate the spirit of 76 than with our 76 years in space? This is not just the Rocket City.

This is the birthplace of space. It all got started here in 1950.

Alex Hall
How can people find out more about the Space Fest and get involved?

Ralph Petroff
Yes. Well, the Rocket City Space Fest website just went online, and it’s going to be updated with great frequency, but rocketcityspacefest.com. And we’ve got so many community partners involved in this.

The Chamber of Commerce has been very helpful. The Convention and Visitors Bureau, the USSRC, the city of Huntsville, so many volunteer groups have come together. Downtown Huntsville, Apollo Coalition, MidCity.

I’m sure I’m leaving the Arts Council. So everybody has come together and shipped in ideas. And what better example of collaboration?

Somebody comes up with an idea, and then all these other people go, ooh, I’ll help. And then they all work together, and the idea just kept getting better and better and better. But one of my initial driver on this was 500 years from now, there will be, I think, two global holidays, New Year’s and Apollo Day.

It is bound to be a global holiday. And why wait hundreds of years? Let’s start it now.

So Rocket City Space Fest and the anchor event is Apollo Day, July 20th, when we went to the moon with 128K of memory in a rocket built by former enemies.

Alex Hall
For more information on Rocket City Space Fest, we’ve got the link on our website at WLRH.org. For Tennessee Valley Mornings, I’m Alex Hall.