Blue Bank Park is the place to be this Sunday, September 15, as the Round House Reunion fills Lake County with live music, food, and fun from 1-5 p.m.
Lake County Rescue will be on hand selling hotdogs, hamburgers, and soda. Vendors will also be selling ice cream and kettle corn. There will be door prizes in addition to the food and fun.
This year the Reelfoot Lake Tourism Council is funding the event.
Country Renegades will be joined by special guests to provide the live music. The band, from Hornbeak, has a long history of playing at the Round House Reunion.
The tourism council is anticipating a large crowd this year.
“Remember to bring a lawn chair or blanket,” said Katrina Greer with the tourism council.
Reelfoot Lake Tourism Council was joined in planning the event by one of the event’s founders, William Green.
Green, who met his wife Betty Lou at the Round House, started the event in 1983 with Doug Brewer as a way to remember the good old days when people went to the Round House for music and fun on the weekends. That year the event only had seven people in attendance, including Green’s family. By the following year, that number grew to 125. By 1993, an estimated 2,800-3,000 people showed up. The nostalgic event attracted people from all over the state, as well as nearby states like Kentucky and Illinois. According to Green, the event became so popular some of the reunion’s regular visitors began taking vacations to Tennessee just for the special reunion.
A dedicated team worked each year to bring the reunion to life. Green and Brewer had the assistance of Carolyn Nails of Dyersburg, who worked on the event for 28 years.
The event eventually started to lose some of the annual visitors, and by 2015 Green and Brewer decided to stop putting the event on. The Reelfoot Lake Tourism Council began hosting the event soon after, and this year, with Green’s help, they’re expecting to draw a big crowd.
“Marriages and friendships have started at the Round House,” said Green. “This is the place to meet old friends and new friends.”
