Water stunt show coming to Kinzua Beach

It was a sink or swim conversation awash in water puns at a recent meeting with representatives of the Warren County Visitors Bureau and the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau as they discussed Labor Day’s “Kinzua Rocks the Wake”.

‘We want to make waves with this event!” claimed Debbie Dean, from Visitor and Member Services at the ANFVB.

“This will really make a splash!” replied Casey Ferry, Executive Director of the WCVB. Their excitement about this new event for the region was as contagious as their water-related puns.

Kinzua Rocks the Wake will be a free three-day, action-packed event at Kinzua Beach on Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30 through Sept, 1. It will bring wild water stunt shows and chart-topping tribute bands to Kinzua Beach in the Allegheny National Forest.

“This event is the first of its kind to hit Northwest Pennsylvania and we couldn’t be more excited,” said Rustin Lippincott, Trail Central – Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau executive director. “Championship water skiing including synchronized pyramids and gravity defying jumps will perform all three days”

This family fun Labor Day event features multiple championship level performances from the Chippewa Falls Ski Team, Ohio’s championship water ski team.

Water skiing performances will alternate with Ski Extreme’s freestyle jet ski and flyboarding stunts from Wisconsin. Ski extreme specializes in jaw-dropping flips and spins on jet skis, as well as flyboarding, a relatively new extreme water sport that involves a water-propelled board attached to someone’s feet and powered by a jetski. The flyboard shoots water down with enough force that users can hover fifty feet or more in the air on a jet of water, do flips and tricks and even dive into the water.

“When the sun goes down, we are excited to bring the high-octane energy of a Nashville country music stadium show that is ‘the best thing to Garth Brooks on Saturday and an authentic 1970’s rock concert creation performing only the greatest, classic rock musical anthems the way you remember,” said Lippincott. “When not touring with his show, Shawn Gerhard is in residence in Las Vegas as their ‘go-to’ Garth Brooks and this show is the longest continually performing Garth Brooks tribute act in the world.”

Saturday will feature the Ultimate Garth Brooks Tribute featuring Shawn Gerhard, Nashville’s high-energy embodiment of Garth’s greatest hits and unmatched showmanship. On Sunday, The Classic Rock Experience, the nation’s top classic rock-n-roll show, combines the 70’s arena rock legends Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Styx and other classic icons into a live theatrical production of the greatest rock musical anthems.

Musicians from across the region will perform acoustic tunes throughout the event. Craft breweries, Bent Run Brewing and Bradford Brew Station, will join food trucks from McKean and Warren Counties, along with family friendly entertainment to round out the free event.

The event will kick off at noon all three days. Saturday and Sunday’s high energy water performances will start at 1 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. when national touring performances will hit the stage just up from Kinzua Beach. Monday’s performances will feature waterski performances and music from noon to 5 p.m.

Kinzua Rocks the Wake is a collaboration between the Warren County Visitors Bureau and Trail Central – Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau. This first ever event brings together two destination marketing organizations from Warren County and McKean County and is made possible from support from the Pennsylvania Office of Tourism’s Marketing to Attract Tourists grant, Big Stage Events. The primary goal of the program is to fund projects that increase awareness of Pennsylvania’s destinations and attractions.

“When we were planning this event, we knew it should represent both destination marketing organizations as the Allegheny National Forest, Reservoir and Kinzua Beach is a shared asset for both counties, so it was fitting we partnered to bring this event to the region,” said Ferry. “This collaboration will be seen throughout the event as we will have craft breweries, one from each county as well as food trucks and wineries representing both counties.”

“This grant allowed us to dream big, then even bigger” claimed Dean.

Dean and Ferry were excited to be able to use the event to showcase their counties. Kinzua Bridge in McKean county will be open for that weekend. Visitors will have a chance to see all that there is in both counties, including the natural beauty and a hint of how beautiful the reservoir will be when the leaves change shortly after the event.

Visitors will be able to boat to the event and watch the show from their boats. The visitors bureau’s were especially thankful to Wolf Run Marina, which is allowing the use of the marina for performers, as well as the Allegheny National Forest and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“This is an event on National Forest land watching a reservoir managed by the Army Corps of engineers. Together, those two groups manage the land and water needed for this to happen, and they have been great to work with.” said Ferry. “This would be impossible without them.”

The bureaus are also working with Allegheny SIte Management to spruce up the Kinzua Beach area and set up the buoys in the water to mark off the show.

This collaboration between two visitors bureaus is a big deal, but a big lift for two small organizations. This event was brought to life by the effort and creativity of five people in two counties who wanted to create something amazing and had the outside the box perspective to look at Kinzua Beach and see an amphitheater for an event that used the water as a stage.

“I want this to be epic,” said Ferry. “I want this to be something people talk about in 20 years. Remember when they brought the water show to the beach?”