Overton County’s annual Pioneer Days festival will get a facelift when it returns in 2027 after a one-year hiatus.
Pioneer Days Committee Chair Tena Rogers said she determined the existing timeline was insufficient to organize the event for the current year. Rogers said the decision to move the celebration to April was made in coordination with local officials to take advantage of cooler temperatures.
“I received the call to take it over about five weeks ago,” Rogers said. “And I met with all the powers that be, we signed all the documents, etcetera, etcetera, but nothing was planned for this year. And I felt like if I said, ‘Okay well, I’ll put the entire thing together in three months,’ I would be shooting myself in the in the foot, you know, I I just don’t like to halfway do anything.”
Rogers said the expanded 2027 celebration will utilize the square, the street leading to the park, and the park itself. Rogers said the layout will keep two sides of the square open for traffic and parking to support local businesses while vendors set up around the courthouse.
“I just I do that with anything I do in life, I try to do the very best I can so people truly will enjoy it,” Rogers said. “Now I do know that there are people who are sad that it’s not this summer, and I understand that, but literally that would have given me 12 weeks, and I just didn’t feel in 12 weeks I could do a great job and if I’m going to do it, I want to do a great job.”
Rogers said the festival will feature a chili cook-off, a hot chicken cook-off, and a beauty pageant for young children. Rogers said the musical programming will focus on country and bluegrass on Friday night, followed by a large-scale concert on Saturday night.
“I want to have everything in place, all my I’s dotted, my T’s crossed for for the big part of what we’re doing,” Rogers said. “You know, I at the at the park area, you know, I’m still going to do the things that kids love like the bouncy houses that kids love, I’ll put it down here in the little parking area at the park and there’s a little mini camel zoo that travels, I’m I’ll bring them in, things that people have written to me and said, ‘Please don’t take this out,’ you know, if you want to write to me, you know and give me your ideas, um, you know, I can always have people email me.”
Rogers said the event will be presented by her company, Americanaville, which she previously co-owned with the late Mark Hauser. Rogers said she intends to maintain the standards Hauser established for community events in Livingston.
“I think it’s going to be full of history, happy times, the um, vendors and their wares and what they do, as well as I want a a two-day event filled with music and fun um, for the children,” Rogers said. “I just I just believe that I want to bring, you know, new breath to it and hopefully it will be accepted and people will love it.”
Rogers said she is currently meeting with former organizers to review the history of the event and solidify the 2027 schedule by the end of this year.
