Ro-Na activities include marquee lighting, concert
Published 11:10 am Thursday, May 22, 2014
![the tribune/jessica st. james Employees from Paris Signs, of Huntington, W.Va., install the marquee Ro-Na marquee Wednesday in downtown Ironton.](https://www.irontontribune.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/05/rona-1-DSC_7017.jpg)
the tribune/jessica st. james
Employees from Paris Signs, of Huntington, W.Va., install the marquee Ro-Na marquee Wednesday in downtown Ironton.
Multiple events will take place this Memorial Day weekend related to the historic Ro-Na Theater in Ironton.
Work to install a new Ro-Na marquee began on May 19 and at 10:30 p.m. on Friday it will be illuminated for the first time.
“We will have an operating marquee in time for our fireworks on Friday,” Rick Jansen, president of Friends of Ironton, said. “After the fireworks we will re-light the Ro-Na.”
The schedule for Friday is as follows:
• 7 p.m. – city celebration at the riverbank, complete with entertainment, concessions, inflatables and vendors;
• 9:30 p.m. – fireworks will begin. The program lasts roughly half an hour;
• 10:30 p.m. – city celebration on Third Street in front of the Ro-Na with J.B. Miller as master of ceremonies;
• 11 p.m. – official lighting of the marquee.
“This is a great milestone for our city,” Jansen said. “Many of you have worked for years to get this facility back on its feet.”
On Saturday the Ro-Na will be the starting and ending location of the American Legion Post 433 Poker Run. Registration begins at 11 a.m. and the poker run begins at 1 p.m.
On Sunday at 8 p.m. Ironton native and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Bare will perform.
“This show is a chance for our communities to honor Bobby Bare for his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame,” Jansen said. “The money raised from concessions, etc., will be used for Ro-Na improvements.”
Currently recording on Plowboy records, Bare released his first album in seven years, “Darker Than Light,” in 2012.
Tickets are on sale now at www.ro-natheater.com and will be available at the door for $20 on Sunday. Doors open at 5 p.m., music begins at 6 p.m. with Derailed Band, followed by Ironton Mayor Rich Blankenship at 7:30 p.m. and Bare at 8 p.m.
“We have a lot of things planned for the weekend,” Jansen said. “It’s going to be so much fun.”