Riffs, Roams and Raves uncovers the creative, noteworthy and accomplished in the Wimberley Valley and beyond with tips on who to hear, where to go and what to see from managing editor Teresa Kendrick.
Riffs: Carl’s Music Column Returns Music lovers and area performers will have noticed that the Wimberley Valley Live Music Calendar was missing from last week’s newspaper. Produced by Carl Rabenaldt, President of Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance at Wimberley-Arts.org, this important column came to us like clockwork and went into the lineup as usual. In the eleventh hour of production it was mistakenly left out of our August 15 final editorial proof, after it was signed off on.
The Wimberley View and her coterie of sister papers are in the middle of a big change. All the layout and design of the newspapers has been centralized in our San Marcos office where our sibling, the San Marcos Daily Record, is published. The first flight of the transition was last week and, well, there were some bumps along the way. Despite many obstacles, our heroic design team weathered what must have been a few really difficult days. In my mind, I pictured a flaming cockpit, a tattered fuselage and white-knuckled operators with their mouses in a stranglehold. While that’s a comical exaggeration, I have to hand it to our design team for getting the fleet landed.
The good news is that Carl’s music calendar hasn’t gone away and will be where it usually is, safe and sound, on Page 3. Many thanks to Carl and our readers for their gracious understanding of our changes.
Roams: Uhland Fall Fest Since June, I’ve received several press releases from the Juice Consulting team, a public relations and marketing firm, about the brand new Uhland Fall Fest. Formerly known as the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival, the event, the Juice team writes, “promises to be an immersive ‘autumn wonderland’ that encapsulates the essence of fall, family, and fun.”
I went to their website, UhlandFallFest. com, and saw a handsome animation depicting the dashboard of a vintage truck driving up to a country scene of golden rolling hills. In the distance, on one side of the screen, we see Austin. On the other side, we see a spectacular multi-tented event next to Old Town Uhland’s main street. Crowds walk in and around a red and white striped Big Top cir- cus tent, and through the entrance of another tent, we see a grand stage crisscrossed with spotlights. Birds, clouds and a hot air balloon traverse the skies, a covered wagon rumbles by, a helicopter lands and a biplane flies over with a banner that reminds us, “Formerly the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival.”
IS IT TRUE THAT THE INAUGURAL UHLAND FALL FEST WILL SPRING UP BEHIND THIS GATE? PHOTOS BY TERESA KENDRICK
I couldn’t wait to lay my eyes on this production. Uhland is roughly nine miles east of I-35 in an area you might think of as “East Kyle.” It is a German name and the “uh” is pronounced much like the short “u” sound in the first syllable of the word “umlaut.” It is a short grunt of a sound, with the lips pushed out, much like the sound a chimp makes. In Texas, though, we tend to pronounce it “you-land.”
However you say it, German farmers settled there in the late 1800s. On the Hays-Caldwell County line, Plum Creek flows through Uhland and the community is divided by El Camino Real, the official trail between Mexico and Louisiana.
With the Fall Fest opening in five weeks, I wanted to see for myself what preparations were underway. I plugged in two addresses, one from the website and one from the press releases: 2400 Cotton Gin Rd and 39 Dairy Road.
Here’s what I found. According to Google maps, 2400 Cotton Gin Road took me in circles and 39 Dairy Road took me to a locked gate, beyond which I could see a cleared path into what I hope is the 97-acre former farmstead. To the left of the gate I found a creek marked by a High Water sign and across the road were cotton fields full of cotton. At one time, Uhland had two cotton gins in town that closed, as many gins did in Texas, beginning in the 1920s.
The press release promises “over 50 unique attractions and 30 bands across two stages, that are presented by Sun Radio 100.1 and Jack FM 96.3. There will be themed areas like the Pumpkin Patch, Barnyard, Kinderville, Swing Hollow, The Barnyard, the Trading Post and something called Munchie Meadows.”
Old Town Uhland, press releases say, “will feature over 40 late-19 century, western-inspired structures, including a train, a depot, post office, farmhouse, bank and trust, schoolhouse, feed store, general store, blacksmith shop, barns and corrals and trading posts. The town will also include a brewhouse, ice haus, saloon, dance hall, opry house and barbeque shop. Families are welcome to bring picnic lunches.”
Fall Fest is the vision of Christopher Durst, a fifth-generation Texan who has produced events and festivals for over 30 years and is the founder of the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Festival. In 2024, Durst partnered with the City of Uhland to create Fall Fest and Old Town Uhland which is expected to host other festivals, weddings and events. If you’re privy to the growth of five major neighborhoods in this area east of I-35 in recent years, you’ll know why Durst chose to relocate. These families need entertainment.
Fall Fest runs from September 28 to October 27. Tickets are on sale now at uhlandfallfest. com. Just a few weeks away, I hope the magicians behind this endeavor come through with a memorable event worth the trip from Wimberley.
Raves: The Players Script Club If you enjoy theatre, you now have the opportunity to delve into the literary world of theatre scripts, thanks to a partnership between the Wimberley Players and The Central Texas Theatre Academy.
The Players Script Club is a roundtable gathering to read and discuss plays from well known scriptwriters, new writers and everyone else in between. It meets every month for the purpose of unearthing plays that could be part of a future theatre season. It doesn’t cost to attend and a longterm commitment isn’t required. Plays are randomly selected and discussion and voting follows each reading.
Wimberley Players’ Director of Marketing, Karin Cunningham, says she hopes, “the community will enjoy this chance to learn how playwrights tell stories through the specialized format of the theatre script. We also hope to entice new actors to join our troupe.”
The next meeting of The Script Club is Tuesday, August 27 at 7 p.m. at The Wimberley Players, 450 Old Kyle Road.
