Manhattan PUBLISHED BY THE MANHATTAN CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
June 2017
Unique symphony setting celebrates twelve years of success
Symphony in the Flint Hills is expected to draw another prairie-filled audience for the 12th consecutive offering of the Symphony in the Flint Hills. This signature event features Kansas City Symphony with legendary Austin crooner Hot Club of Cowtown. This year’s concert is June 10 at the Deer Horn Ranch, just south off Interstate 70. The Symphony will be a feature attraction for our partners at Geary County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Limited GA tickets are sold out. Patron packages are available at Symphonyintheflinthills.org/ category/tickets.
TOURISM TOPICS
Fresh on the mind: Bread, Bar-b-que and how to’s Bread! BBQ! Beer! Ballads! All are a sampling of the major draw for Manhattan on June 17 that encasing the National Festival of Breads. Activities are centered at the Manhattan Conference Center with the amateur baking contest determining America’s best bread recipe. The celebration will also spill out onto Blue Earth Plaza.
Outside, Rod Gray with Pellet Envy will command the stage with three barbecue demonstrations as part of BBQ Like A Pro events in the Blue Earth Plaza. In conjunction with Gray’s demos, Aaron Nickell with Manhattan’s own The Backyard Kitchen will dish up a hot serving of the current market in barbecue accessories. The baking showdown matches eight contestants – selected in April among thousands of entries -- as they ply their craft with set-up kitchens right on the Manhattan Conference Center floor. Representative from eight states (Arkansas, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah) travel to Manhattan, June 14-17, for tours of a wheat farm, research facility and flour mill before the contest. “Manhattan is the perfect location to host a national baking competition because it is a wheat research hub,” said Cindy Falk, co-chairperson of the event and nutrition educator for the Kansas Wheat Commission.
Blue Earth BBQ Bash
BBQ demos were a small component in 2015 when the biennial event was last staged. This year, the BBQ Like A Pro event will be a bustling bistro of mixed aromas within Blue Earth Plaza. Rod Gray has apron-flowing awards accomplishments on the BBQ circuit, with his own rubs and sauces in tow with Pellet Envy. Cox Brothers BBQ favorites with Tallgrass Beer selections and music from The Past Blasters adds to the pageantry of events on the green-spread, open space of Blue Earth Plaza. June 17 is the date; come out and pick out your spot in the entertainment-filled day! • Enrich Your Life 5K/1 mile, 7 a.m. June 17. One component of National Festival of Breads and daylong activities in Manhattan Conference Center/Blue Earth Plaza.