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Country hitmaker Ty Herndon to headline first Tiffin Fest

By Loren Keller

What started as a plan to host a parade and ice cream social in Tiffin this summer has grown to a full scale festival featuring a country music singer with three number one hits under his belt.

Ty Herndon, whose concerts typically draw upwards of 5,000 people, will take the stage at 8:30 p.m. Saturday to headline the first-ever Tiffin Fest.

Fans will likely have the chance to meet the 46-year-old singer and get his autograph after his performance, says Wanda Baird of Coralville, a country talent agent and booker since the 1970s.

“He’s the type who sticks around. He’s not in a hurry,” says Baird, who used her Nashville connections to bring Herndon to Tiffin. “He likes to be right there, he likes the audience. He wants to sign autographs and have his picture taken with fans.”

Herndon has charted a total of seventeen singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three number ones—"What Mattered Most" (1995) "Living in a Moment" (1996) and “It Must Be Love” (1998) — as well as four additional top ten hits.

Country singer Jake McVey, winner of the Illinois Country Music Association’s new male vocalist award in 2005, will likely meet with fans before his opening performance at 6 p.m.  McVey is scheduled to play the Summer Stockyard Festival in Wayland, Iowa later Saturday night.

“It’s 24 hours of day of music with Jake and that’s about the way it has to be. He’s doing very well at it,” Baird says.

The concerts take place at the Tiffin Ball Diamonds, east of Tiffin on Highway 6. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate.

Also playing Saturday is the youth percussion band Sheltered Reality, a nonprofit group that raises money for underprivileged children.  “They’re very exciting to watch,” says Ben Watt, Tiffin Fest’s organizer. “They’re really upbeat and they really have a rhythm.”

Attendance at all other Tiffin Fest events and exhibits— including a car show, a flea market, the University Hospital’s rescue helicopter and Johnson County Emergency Management vehicles— are free. A parade begins at 9 a.m. and amusement rides open at 11. The North Liberty Jaycees will operate a beer garden and food vendors on hand will include L & J Kitchen BBQ House, Hani’s Grill and Haight’s Meat Market.

Baird and others will judge a “Stars of Tomorrow” talent showcase from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. More than 20 singers and groups have signed up to perform; Baird is hoping to take the winner of the showcase to Nashville this fall to participate in a Grand Ole Opry Midnight Jamboree.

Like North Liberty during RAGBRAI’s overnight stop Thursday, the small Corridor town of Tiffin is likely to more than double its population of about 2,000 people on Saturday.

“We’ve been told Ty generally draws anywhere from 5 to 7,000 whenever he is a headliner, so we’re hoping for that,” Watt says.

The town had considered canceling the festival during the mid-June flooding but decided against it as several other events were already canceled. Luckily, Watt says, Tiffin suffered no flood damage.

“We just wanted to draw more people to Tiffin and let them know that we’re here,” he says. “We’ve been kind of considered a bedroom community but we’re changing and growing rapidly.”