The story of Neewollah is of necessity anecdotal. This is not a treatise nor is it a painstakingly, researched instrument, it is not footnoted. Instead it is mostly a collection of stories that the author has heard or experienced during the 40 year renaissance of Neewollah since 1958. My only claim to fame and expertise is having lived through much of the recent history and contributed to some of that collection of tales.

1918 must have been a heck of a Halloween. The Halloween that is known and revered  today is much different than that of 1918. With the war in Europe winding down and the dreaded Spanish influenza still a year away, people in Southeast Kansas decided to make the most of the “trick” part of trick or treating and the result was (as reported in The South Kansas Tribune,a weekly periodical published in Independence) an unprecedented wave of vandalism and “hooliganism”. To the extent that by 1919, the city fathers and community leaders met together to try and set a course of action that would eliminate a repeat of such conduct.

From that beginning came the idea for Neewollah. Neewollah, or halloween spelled backwards, was to be a practical and attractive alternative to the vandalism of trick or treating.

The first Neewollah was modest but well supported. Downtown merchants were asked to contribute to the celebration. It was to be a one-day affair consisting of a rodeo, a parade and a Neewollah queen. The queen actually ran for the nomination and the winner was announced as the candidate who sold the most tickets to the rodeo. The first Neewollah queen in 1919 was Ida St Helens, a pretty 17 year old at Independence High School. The rodeo attracted entrants from all over the region including many entries and queen sponsorships from Northeast Oklahoma. In an age when the automobile was still in its infancy, and roadways were unproven and uneven, it is amazing that so many out-of -town queen entries from so far away graced the Neewollah pageant that first year. With the downtown parade consisting mostly of horse-drawn entries, the first Neewollah was pronounced a resounding success.

By 1920, some of the activities were moved from the rodeo grounds uptown to Memorial Hall. Memorial Hall was and still is an awesome structure for a town of 10,000 people. It was built in 1916 as a community hall. Seating can hold 2,100 people with a balcony and second balcony. The stage at Memorial Hall is actually a full-time stage with scenery, flies, sandbags and lighting - both lightbars and footlights. Over the many years of Neewollah, Memorial Hall has been absolutely indispensible in the presentation of various Neewollah programs. The first Neewollah event in Memorial Hall occurred in 1920 with the Queens pageant. Again, the playbill for 1920 shows that a very large number of queens were sponsored from all over the area, including as far south as Stillwater, Oklahoma and as far east as Joplin, Missouri. This would indicate that even in the 1920s, Neewollah was getting a reputation regionally as a clean and wholesome alternative to pranks at halloween.

By 1925, the parade had expanded into two parades. One of the parades was a light parade. It begs the question how did the parade organizers in 1925 manage to light all the floats with 1925 technology? The night parade was a big hit with the populace. The rodeo continued but was a two-day rodeo. The Queens pageant grew by leaps and bounds with over 60 contestants from all over the area.

For whatever reasons, perhaps because the celebration burned too brightly, interest in Neewollah began to wane and by 1930, in the midst of The Great Depression, it was cancelled. Attempts were made to revive the celebration but with the onset of World War II, the celebration remained dormant.

After the war, a small-scale attempt to revive Neewollah was once more attempted but there was little interest and no money to start it up.

The modern history of Neewollah actually begins in 1958. Three young businessmen, a mortician, a musical promoter and a dry cleaner, are sitting in a booth at the soda fountain in Defevers drug store contemplating their lives and their community. The mortician, Jerry Webb, is a local boy who has come back to Independence to work in his father’s business, the Webb funeral home. The drycleaner, Bob Wohltman, is a young family man just starting his family, raising four young children, all blonde-haired and blue-eyed. He is vitally concerned about the community and wants to spice things up to make Independence an exciting and active community again. The promoter, Jim Halsey, is a young booking agent, talent scout, club owner, and promoter trying to get started in what was, even in those days, a tough business. Who actually suggested that Neewollah be revived is not altogether known but the three together collaborated on the seed of the idea and the result was in October of 1958, a blueprint that was set out for the revival and collaboration of the Neewollah festival.

For Halsey, it was an opportunity to showcase talent and try out acts he was nurturing. The problem for all three was, would the community buy into the concept?

From the beginning, it was decided that the bulk of Neewollah must be FREE. This was an essential element in attracting participation from the community. A grand parade, a parade on such a scale as Neewollah had not ever seen in the whole history of the celebration, was laid out. There were so many details to the first parade that parade organizers would be aghast at the lack of anticipated problems promoters did not foresee. How about restroom accommodations for band members? Where were all the school buses to park? Should politicians and private advertisers be allowed? What do we do with the crowds? How long is too long?

After the parade was incubated, planners decided that the practice of electing a Neewollah queen needed to be revived. Once again, the now slightly-outmoded but still grand structure of Memorial Hall, was called on to be the focus for the queen coronation. It was decided that since there was still rent to pay and security to employ, a nominal charge for  the queens coronation would be administered. To offset the other costs, Webb went door-to-door to each local merchant asking for Neewollah contributions. For a few, it was a tough sell. Older merchants remembered the failures and disappointments of the past. Fortunately, there was a solid core of younger businessmen who were not afraid to take a chance. They embraced the Neewollah concept and endeavored to help financially and with manpower.

The coronation was a one-day affair, with the queen’s crowning on Friday night. Each girl would present a three-minute talent in the Legion room of the Memorial Hall. The talent would be presented before three judges and the candidate’s mother. Talents were from a variety of sources but a popular talent was miming the words to records and three-minute, stand-up speeches. That was it? Because the talent was such a small part of the celebration, the local girls embraced the coronation and in the first several years of the Queens pageant, it was not unusual to have 50 to 60 queen contestants. The appeal of Neewollah’s Queens coronation extended to neighboring communities and many out-of-town girls participated. There was an unfounded rumor in the early days of the revival that hinted that an out-of-town contestant could not become queen. It proved to be unfounded when the first year of the revival, Leola Hamsher, from Parsons, Kansas, was picked by the judges to be queen. After the Queens coronation on Friday night, the contestants would all adjourn downstairs to the basement of Memorial Hall and celebrate in the to the “fab” sounds of Rodney and the Blazers, a rock and roll garage band from Coffeyville, Kansas.
The two-day festivities would end up Saturday night with the Cavalcade of Stars. After the Saturday parade, out-of-towners would be invited to stay around and go to the Saturday night show where Halsey had booked Vaughn Monroe, Somethin’ Smith and the Redheads and the Orchestra of Johnny Long. The early shows were a mixed bag of vaudeville and one would be as likely to see a big band playing followed by the Ink Spots, an all-Black singing quartet, and that would be followed by a country western star or a comedian. There was no real form or reason to these first professional shows but they were fun. It was decided that to cover the professional expenses, something had to be charged for the privilege. Ticket holders were charged $4.00 per seat in 1958 for the privilege of attending the professional show.

If the professional show was not enough work, Halsey, blessed with unfailing, boundless energy, also conceived and organized the street acts. A temporary wooden bandstand was erected. downtown. The main streets were blocked off. Some of Halsey’s newer, less well-known artists worked the street acts where it was not unusual for professionals to play on-again, off-again, on the streets 4 to 6 times a day. International recording star, Roy Clark, got his start on the streets at Neewollah and likes to tell of having to play standup guitar for 6 sets a day. He then said he would adjourn to the Elks Club (Kansas was dry in those days but the Elks Club definitely was not!) where he would play another two sets. Glen Campbell also got his start on the Neewollah bandstand. To this day, the street acts, as conceived by Jim Halsey, is one of the most popular events at Neewollah. At its zenith in the early 1990s, it was nothing to have 15,000 people downtown on a Wednesday night in an area designed to hold 500 ( More of that to come later).

The Grand Parade was indeed grand and Vaughn Monroe, the Saturday night headliner rode down the avenue on the back of a convertible... .hemorrhoids and all!!

Neewollah 1958 was a resounding success. In every way, it exceeded expectations except in one way... .financially. Financially, Neewollah was still very much dependent on the good wishes of the downtown merchants.

Whatever else could be said, all agreed that the Neewollah brainchild of Halsey, Webb and Wohltman must be continued. Having shown the possibilities to the community, raising money in 1959 was not as hard as in 1958. The women of the community completely took over the Queens pageant, giving the boot to any male input. While perhaps not sexist in 1959, this practice still exists today. It is still the case that there is a ratio of five women on each committee per queen candidate in the pageant. (In all fairness, not many men were pushing and shoving to be taken in as queen’s committee chairs)

A very significant addition was made to the celebration in 1959. Still in its infancy and feeling its way, the Neewollah organizers felt that a community theatre presentation should be put on. Local high school speech instructor, Margaret Goheen, was asked to direct the community stage play for 1959. She picked the William Inge award-winning play of 1953, Picnic. Picnic has special significance for the Independence populace. The author is a native of Independence and frequently makes reference to it in his writing. References to teachers, neighbors and community leaders were based on real people that the Independence community knew. For many in Independence, it was the first time they had seen the play. Once again, prominent use was made of  Memorial Hall with its antiquated counterweights, sandbags and painted drops. Nevertheless, Goheen’s crew put on a first class show. To make certain it would be a hit, she contacted a friend in New York who secured the services of Hal Hamilton, a professional New York actor who was working as a supporting player on As The World Turns, a long-running CBS soap opera. Hamilton, who knew Margaret Goheen and had been a student of hers. came back to Independence and played the lead. It was, in all respects, a triumph and laid the foundation for some of the most amazing first class productions ever to grace the Neewollah stage.

Picnic opened on a Thursday night to only one sold-out performance. Friday night was the Queens pageant. A new wrinkle was added on Friday afternoon. In order to attract a large contingency of children who loved to march in a parade, Webb created the Neewollah Kiddie Parade. The Kiddie Parade consisted of the city fire engine, a police car, a few bands, a few floats and hundreds and hundreds of children in costumes. An instant hit, the Kiddie Parade is still a major magnet attracting out-of-towners to come to Independence and dress up their children just to march 4 blocks in costume. And it is free, too.
Coincidence so often determines the future course of events. During the height of the Neewollah celebration in 1960, a local carnival, The Sonny Myers carnival from Sedalia, Missouri, was passing through Independence. They had a couple of off days before their next contracted site and noticed the commotion in downtown Independence. They asked the mayor for permission to set up the carnival. Was that ever a big addition to the downtown activities! Suddenly, in addition to the live music, the youngsters could have their senses assaulted from all sides, riding the merry go round, or the octopus, or if you were really crazy, the squirrel cages. The carnivals had sideshows in those days as well. Webb said that organizers were at first skeptical of allowing the inclusion of a carnival due to the generally bad public relations carnivals tend to attract, but the managers of the carnivals were gentlemen and ran a clean outfit and didn’t reflect badly on the celebration.

The Grand Parade for 1959 was almost 50% bigger than the parade of 1958 and took 2 hours to run through the streets. The high school set up bleachers along the major routes to help people sit and watch the parade go by.

To add to all the other activities, following the Saturday night professional, Halsey had booked several different style bands playing a variety of music at various venues throughout Independence. The rock and roll was played at the Civic Center. The country western was at the 4H building in the park. The big band music came from the Country Club. And so it went, after only one year, the celebration was a major happening event. The sky was the limit and things would only get better.

In the formative years, 1960 needs to be remembered for two things. First is the establishment of what has become Neewollah’s signature tradition, the all-community musical. Not a choral group with a piano. A real honest-to-gosh musical with real local talent, an orchestra, and a chorus that professional singers were complimentary of. This musical idea came from Bobbie Gibson, a local resident who had a definitive background of musical experience. Bobbie decided that Neewollah’s first foray into the musical world would be what producers even today consider to be one of the hardest shows to put on in a professional mode. Gibson chose as the Neewollah signature piece Rodgers and Hammerstein ‘s Oklahoma!. Talk about ambitious. Oklahoma! requires real singing, real acting and real dancing. Having no litmus to test the time it takes to put on a Neewollah musical, Gibson started rehearsals only ONE MONTH prior to performance. Today, a director for a Neewollah show reserves at least 10 and often 12 weeks to put on a musical. Musicals present so many problems that plays do not. For one, there’s so much music! The music was played by a community orchestra. The arrangements were actually rewritten and penned by Howard Thompson, high school band teacher. Webb recalls that practices were intense and nobody had a lot of time to rehearse because it had to come together so fast. But, anticipating that the musical would be the mainstay of Neewollah for years to come, a fourth night was added to the celebration and the musical was presented Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
And so it was on Wednesday night’s performance, the big curtain at Memorial Hall opened up on the Howard Holeman designed cornfield. Out of the midst of the cornfield came Howard Lavoie, a gorgeous tenor who began singing “Oh What a Beautiful Mornin” The result was mesmerizing. Dana Aitken, a pure soprano with a mountain of talent, was Laurie. It was magic. And at that moment, Webb knew that a new Neewollah tradition had been born.

Oklahoma! was not without its glitches. The actor who played Judd Fry had gotten himself thrown in the county jail the night before the performance for intoxication. He was escorted to the stage by sheriff’s deputies, who released his handcuffs. He did his performance, took his curtain call, walked back off the stage into handcuffs again and went back to jail.

1960 was a grand year. Jerry Webb was made generalissimo (chairman of the celebration). The downtown crowd on Friday embraced the Street acts. The Kiddie Parade Friday afternoon was a big hit and the Queens Pageant was great. The carnival was making money. So what could conspire to ruin this perfect celebration? The elements. Storm clouds came in and it rained, and rained, and rained. The parade was postponed and finally Webb had to cancel it when it was apparent that a full blown “gully washer” was imminent. With everything going so well for so long, rain had not occurred to any one. It was decided in 1960, that in the future, the Grand Parade would run at 11AM RAIN OR SHINE.

Neewollah was now a fixture in the Southeast Kansas psyche and plans were made every year to attend the bigger and better celebrations.

One of the highlights of Neewollah that is no longer observed is the daredevil sideshow acts that would perform on Saturday mornings before the parade. As a youngster, I recall standing in the parade crowd watching a young lady in nothing but a bathing suit swaying back and forth 300 feet above the pavement. Well maybe it wasn’t 300 feet, but it certainly seemed like it. We would see unicyclists and tightrope artists ride bicycles back and forth between the two tallest buildings in Independence on a tight wire (six stories high no less). Whether the city decided that there was too much liability or the money couldn’t be raised to support these daredevils is not readily known. One year they were in Independence and suddenly the next year they were gone and have never returned.

The musicals got more brazen and more elaborate. In 1961, Neewollah produced Annie Get Your Gun. In 1962, they produced The Music Man, which was still playing on Broadway. A sidebar about The Music Man. An elaborate scene in the first act is about The Wells Fargo Wagon. The set, designed by Howard Holeman, had arranged for two Shetland ponies to appear on the stage with a driver in a converted cart that resembled a stage coach. It was a colorful and most impressive scene. What the stage crew forgot was to block the wheels of the Wells Fargo Wagon. The Memorial Hall stage slopes 10 degrees or more from South to North. This slope was so significant that in the middle of the dialogue, the wagon came loose from its moorings and started rolling rapidly toward the orchestra pit. Thinking quickly, the actors caught the tongue of the wagon just before it was fated to go over the edge and into the bass drum.

In another story,. .Bobbie Gibson had asked the Independence high school band to march through the auditorium in their uniforms at the conclusion of The Music Man playing the signature piece Seventy Six Trombones. The high school principal and the band director declined. Gibson, never undaunted, secured the services of the Coffeyville high school marching band. Coffeyville is a community only 16 miles from Independence and is the chief and bitterest of all Independence’s rivals. So, at the end of the show out comes the Coffeyille high school marching Golden Tornadoes who truck up a rousing rendition of 76 Trombones. Rather than be incensed, the highly partisan Independence crowd ate it up. They begged for an encore. And Coffeyville got to stick a little dig into the back of its rival Independence at the same time.

By the middle 60s, Neewollah was now in its heyday. The Queens Coronation was moved back to Tuesday night and Halsey added Friday night as a second night of Neewollah professional shows. The nature of the professional shows was beginning to take some shape. There was less variety and more emphasis on country western. As Halsey was finding his way, he found that the great majority of the Independence and surrounding community really wanted to hear country music.

The musical comedy continued to excel. In 1963, magic struck the Independence stage when Bobbie Gibson put on what for many old timers and for Bob Hille, who has played bass drum in every Neewollah production since 1960, consider their favorite Neewollah musical production of all time, Guys and Dolls. It was the perfect vehicle for the Neewollah stage, a perfect blend of comedy, music and romance. Many of those performers who appeared in Guys and Dolls, including Jenny Webb and this reporter’s father, Fred Wilkin, still consider Guys and Dolls their favorite show of the 40 plus shows they have been involved in.
And the musicals just got more ambitious. In 1964, fresh off Broadway, Neewollah presented My Fair Lady. An unlikely lead character, Henry Higgins, was played by Hobart Hilyard, pastor of the First United Methodist Church. More than a few
eyebrows raised when Higgins’ proclaimed.. “Damn Damn Damn Damn I’ve grown accustomed to her face!” Hilyard was true to the material however and didn’t attempt to change a word. And in 1966, director, Georgia High, and producer, Fred Wilkin, undertook what was to that time the most ambitious musical produced to date... Oliver!

The politics and turbulence of the late 1960s and early 70’s didn’t really effect the celebration until about 1973 when Neewollah went into decline. The level of professional entertainment remained high caliber, first-rate musicals, such as Hello Dolly and Fiddler on the Roof, continued to wow audiences in those days. And the Queens Coronation still had enthusiastic participation but the number of contestants was declining dramatically. By 1978, only 19 girls participated. The energy level was down. The country was going through the end of the Vietnam conflict, Watergate was in the headlines every day, and the people of Independence just lost the enthusiasm to work Neewollah any longer.

In 1973, Neewollah found it could not pay the high-price royalties to produce quality musicals and instead settled for a musical review of several broadway songs. In 1974, the musical was cancelled and no musical was had. The genre was revived with a rousing musical production, The King and I, in 1975. But again, the interest slipped. By 1977, due to some poor weather and financial setbacks, Neewollah found itself without funds to put on a celebration. The headline in the local newspaper, The Independence Reporter, read “Neewollah is Ekorb” (Broke)
After the 1978 celebration, Jerry Webb started out once more where he had started out 20 years earlier; borrowing money, going door to-door for contributions, and trying to scrape together enough funds and interest to keep the celebration alive. In 1979, three major events took place which would change the face of Neewollah forever.
A Board of Directors was formed to oversee the day–to-day activities of the celebration. This allowed Webb some leeway and freedom in decision making for the good of the celebration. That same year, Neewollah began allowing food vendors to set up on the street.

Before that time, Neewollah had resisted allowing food vendors to capitalize on the celebration. The city allowed Neewollah to charge a user fee to each vendor. It wasn’t much but it helped and the air was suddenly filled with the wonderful aroma of barbecue and pizza and hotdogs and cinnamon rolls. The food vendors - of which today there are usually 30 or 31 different vendors - is a mainstay of  Neewollah and most popular with everyone.

The second matter of note in 197,9 was that Neewollah signed a long-term agreement with the Bob Ottaway amusements for continued use of the carnival rides. Ottaway had been coming to Independence almost every year faithfully in good weather and bad. Located out of Derby, Kansas, the Ottaway carnival is recognized as a first-class operation which rarely encounters problems of any kind. It was a smart move by the Board to sign  Ottaway to a long-term agreement, beneficial to both.
The third addition to the celebration was the inclusion of a band competition. New high school band director, Don Farthing, conceived a local band competition to be held in conjunction with the Neewollah celebration. Area bands from all over were invited to come to Independence, march in the parade, enjoy the day and compete for trophies and prizes. The band competition was an instant hit, cheap to produce and flourishes to this day.

Another reason Neewollah turned a corner in 1979, was the sudden popularity of country western music by mainstream America. Suddenly, local-boy-makes-good, Jim Halsey was able to book some very exciting country western acts including, The Oak Ridge Boys, Reba McIntire, Michael Martin Murphy and Ray Price -all who graced the stages of Memorial Hall during Neewollah.
In 1980, Neewollah underwent another change. Memorial Hall was undergoing a major face lift and was unavailable for the celebration. This meant that the bulk of the celebration had to be put on in the high school gymnasium and the play was produced at the 175 seat William Inge theater on the campus of Independence Community College. Despite these inconveniences and the projected loss of revenue, the celebration was still quite popular. Neewollah was coming back!
In 1982, Home Box Office contacted Neewollah about videotaping an hour special from the Neewollah bandstand. It took two nights. A freakish ice storm came through southeast Kansas freezing fingers and the crowd but performers braved the elements and played to huge downtown crowds both nights. Some of the noteworthy names included Roy Clark, Merle Haggard, Gatemouth Brown and Ronnie Milsap.

A decision was made to increase the Neewollah revenues by moving the queen’s talent night to Memorial Hall. Since 1970, queen’s talent was held on the auditorium stage at the high school. By 1982, it was decided to test the waters and see whether the town would support a queens talent night as part of the regular festivities. The response was overwhelming and queens talent, which traditionally does not cost very much, has become a mainstay of the celebration. 1982 was also the year Neewollah produced Annie. It was decided to include a huge number of children. An extra day, a matinee on Sunday afternoon, was added to the two nightime performances. The result was 4000 people saw Annie and it set an attendance record not broken until 1997 when The Wizard of Oz was produced.

By the end of the 1980s, Neewollah was back on solid ground and going stronger than ever. There were some bumps in the road. Some of the Thursday night entertainment never did sell well, and four different attempts failed to run an international talent night in which international performers would compete on the Neewollah stage for prize money. It never really got off the ground. But the Neewollah schedule was now expanded to 9 days: Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon featured the musical. The queens talent would be held on Monday nights and the Queen’s Coronation would be held on Tuesday nights. Wednesday was the opening of the Ottaway carnival and the foodstands. Thursday was an additional night downtown at the carnival with free street acts. Friday was the Kiddie Parade and Saturday morning the Grand Parade with the end of Neewollah being the professional show presentation on Saturday night.

An addition on Wednesday nights during the late 80s, was a creation of Cablevision director, Mike Flood. The Nashville Network featured a television show called Be A Star. which was an amateur country talent scout show. Flood convinced the network to include Neewollah as a feed for amateur talent with a chance to land a professional contract through The Nashville Network. The talent show was to be held on the bandstand on the Wednesday night opening of the carnival. From its debut to its last performance, some five years late,r it attracted tremendous crowds. It was a big hit with the Neewollah revelers and was only cancelled because the show itself was cancelled by The Nashville Network. During its heyday, in the early 1990s, it was not unusual to see 15,000 people on the streets of downtown Independence on Wednesday night.

It was in 1988 that another organization began making its mark during Neewollah. Through the efforts of the local Marine Corps league, Neewollah was able to secure the United States Marine Corps Band of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was from start to finish an 8-year love affair between the Marines and the city of Independence. Playing only concerts for free, the Marines embraced the community. They went to the high school and played. They played at halftime of the Independence/Coffeyville football game. They played on the bandstand and inside the VFW hall. Of course, they marched in the Grand Parade. People who would not come out to see anything else came out, by the thousands, to get a glimpse of the Marine band. Changes in personnel and administration signalled the end of the Marine band coming to Independence in 1998. But it was great while it lasted.

The next significant addition to Neewo!lah came in 1993. Generalissimo, Steve Wilkin, (your author!) had fielded a couple of complaints from parents who requested that adults were dressing up and participating in the Kiddie Parade (for shame!). In a moment of some levity, Wilkin suggested that perhaps the adults should form their own parade. Looking for something to plug into Thursday night downtown, which was always notoriously slow for the vendors, the adult halloween parade was born. It was called the “Doo Dah parade” shamelessly stolen from the parade of the same name that takes place on New Years day in Southern California. The Doo Dah parade taxed the creative efforts of many adults who wanted to march down the street looking like an idiot in costume. It was a big success and has grown more and more elaborate every year. There is a king and queen Doo Dah who ride down the streets of Independence on a toilet seat on a flatbed truck. The appeal to the parade is that no entry form is filled out in advance and spontaneity is the key. Also, It’s free both to the participants and to the general public. That made a total of three parades in one celebration.

The next significant addition was made in 1997 with the introduction of the great Neewollah medallion hunt, A plastic medallion is hidden somewhere in the city limits of Independence. Clues are given in the newspaper and on the webpage site. The winner, when the medallion is found, is paid $1000.00 if the finder has a Neewollah button. It is very popular and loads of fun for everyone.

Today, the celebration is healthier than ever. The musicals routinely cost $10,000 to produce anymore, a staggering sum for a community production. But they sell 3000 tickets every year and the afternoon matinee is always close to a sellout. The Queens Pageant averages 30 high school senior candidates a year. But they are monstrously talented and there is no such thing as miming words to records any more. The girls who participate are poised, intelligent and universally talented. The professional shows have left the country western arena the last few years in favor of a Rock and Roll revival. Such groups as Three Dog Night, REO Speed Wagon and Bachmann Turner Overdrive wow Independence rock and rollers during the celebration and sell bunches of tickets. The parades pack them in and the Grand Parade always runs at least two hours and usually runs closer to three hours.

15 members now comprise the Neewollah board of directors. This group is charged with overseeing the day-to-day details of the festival.

But it is the hundreds of community volunteers that make Neewollah the success that it has become. Without these people, there would be no celebration. The people of Independence feel individually that each has had a  hand in the success of the celebration. And the best part of all is that there is no shortage of volunteers.

The challenge for Neewollah each year is to top itself. So far this year and each year past, the ongoing celebration has been better than the year before. As Neewollah approaches the millennium, people wonder how Neewollah can be improved. Trial and error continues to be the best way. But the core is still the community and the volunteers that will always keep the celebration fresh and exciting.