By George Slaughter This year’s Katy Rice Festival was a welcome return to a face-to-face event following the pandemic-forced online event last year. The festival, sponsored by the City of Katy and the Katy Rotary Club, was a return to what its supporters envisioned: People visiting downtown Katy, purchasing from local businesses, enjoying entertainment and other attractions, with plenty of food and refreshments. Weather-wise, the festival was made to order, with mostly sunny skies and […]
Katy Rice Festival
Katy Celebrates Rice Festival with a Parade
By George Slaughter The Katy Rice Festival is set for next weekend, and held a parade Saturday to celebrate. After seeing the 2020 festival be put exclusively online due to the pandemic, festival organizers and participants are looking forward to an in-person event this upcoming weekend. The festival will continue to use the parking and shuttle setups as it has in the past. The shuttle service will transport festival-goers from the Leonard E. Merrell Center […]
Planning for 2021 Katy Rice Festival Underway
By George Slaughter Organizers of the annual Katy Rice Festival are preparing for an in-person festival this year, a welcome return following last year’s online event. “We’re definitely looking for sponsors,” Gary Moore, who takes over as festival director this year, said. “We’re filling up the vendor booths. It’s an ongoing process.” Last year’s festival went online because of the pandemic. The festival, set for October 8-10, brings tens of thousands of people to downtown […]
Katy Rice Festival Going Virtual This Weekend
By George Slaughter The pandemic has caused the Katy Rice Festival to go online this weekend, but the show is still going on. The festival begins at 9 a.m. Friday with a virtual market being launched on the Katy Rice Festival website. At 7 p.m., country musician Hayden Baker will give a livestream performance on Facebook. Baker grew up in Katy and performed at last year’s festival. On Saturday, virtual registration for what is being […]
Katy Rice Festival to Go Online for 2020
By George Slaughter The Katy Rice Festival, a long-standing Katy community tradition, is going online this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The festival is set for October 9-11. Organizers said a virtual experience featuring an online craft market, livestream band performances, and other family activities are being planned. Craft vendors wishing to participate are being asked to complete and submit an application on the festival website. There is no cost for registration and […]
Katy Rice Festival Enjoys Good Crowds
By George Slaughter Katy residents and visitors had much to enjoy at the annual Katy Rice Festival, which continues through tomorrow. Friday evening featured live music, food trucks, a beer garden, and a carnival. Saturday’s events began with a parade that ran east on 10th Street to Drexel Drive, when it turned south and proceeded to 5th Street. There, it turned west, passing by the judges’ stage, at the East Avenue intersection, and then turned […]
Tax Grant Approved for Katy Rice Festival
By George Slaughter A $75,000 Convention and Tourism Bureau hotel occupancy tax grant application for the 2019 Katy Rice Harvest Festival was approved by the Katy City Council Monday night. The festival, a local tradition since 1981, is scheduled for Oct. 11-13 in downtown Katy, between 1st Street and 4th Street and Avenue A and Avenue D. The city last year took over the festival sponsorship from the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce, which declined […]
Katy Rice Festival Gets Underway in Downtown Katy
By George Slaughter Organizers of the 2018 Katy Rice Festival planned to return the festival to its roots in that it would have a renewed focus on arts, crafts, and family fun. Festival-goers attending Saturday’s events in downtown Katy enjoyed all that, along with good weather as well. Festivities began with a morning parade, the timing of which was a change from years past, in which the parade would take place the week before the […]
Katy Rice Festival Looks to Return to Its Roots This Weekend
By George Slaughter City of Katy and Rotary Club leaders have been working since the summer to organize the annual Katy Rice Festival, which takes place Saturday and Sunday in downtown Katy. City leaders and festival organizers said the goal for this year’s festival is to return the festival to its original form. The emphasis will again be on quality art and craft vendors, along with live music, family activities, and food and drinks. Mayor […]
Katy Rotary Club to Play Leadership Roles with Rice Festival and Triathlon
By George Slaughter The Katy Rotary Club will be playing leading roles in two high-profile events this fall. The first event is the Katy Triathlon at Cane Island, set for September 23. The triathlon will be within the Katy city limits after previously being organized and staged at Firethorne, which sits outside the city limits in Fort Bend County. The Katy City Council Monday night approved a tax $75,000 convention and tourism board occupancy tax […]