Redneck Parade and Festival is lighting up a 'BonfireJam'

Chumuckla will become the home of the largest winter music festival in the Southeast this December with two of the hottest acts in county music.

The BonfireJam in conjunction with the Chumuckla Redneck Parade and Festival will feature country music artists Rodney Atkins and another major country music act to be named later.

Heading up the project is Milton native Joe Lewis, who owns Joe Lewis Productions in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

“We are looking to cap off a great day and make this a really big time event,” said Lewis, who worked with the NFL for eight years in producing their events and now is involved in the production of events such as the Academy Awards.  “I have had my eye on this for the last five years and wanted to do something to help this local/regional phenomenon.

“We are billing this as a day of country culture and a night of country music.”

Atkins is currently climbing the charts with his current hit Farmer’s Daughter, while enjoying success with other releases such as Watching You, These Are My People, Cleaning His Gun, and If You’re Going Through Hell.

“When we started making plans we decided to make it a one day event instead of splitting our resources,” Lewis said.

The date for the BonfireJam in conjunction with the Chumuckla Redneck Parade and Festival will be Saturday Dec. 11, with the parade set to begin at 2 p.m.

Following the parade will be activities leading up to the jam, which will have tickets available online.

Lewis is expecting tickets to be $35 for premium seating, and around $24 for general admission, which is festival seating.

“We will have a few premium seats, but they will be very limited,” Lewis said. “Most of the area will be festival seating so bring your blankets, lawn chairs, buckets, or whatever.

Lewis also noted that kids 10 and under will be free and tickets will be available only on the website, www.bonfirejam.com, which is expected to be up and running sometime Wednesday.

While the event will be a big benefit to many local organizations, Lewis and organizers are taking it one step further.

“Some of the proceeds from this event will benefit the Santa Rosa Kids House, Field a Float, and the Big Dreams scholarship fund at Milton High School,” Lewis said. “We are also going to have applications on our website so we can do this with the resources we have at home.

“We could bring in outside resources, but that does not help give back to the community.”

Many are familiar with the Santa Rosa Kids House and its efforts to help abused children, while Field a Float is a charity started by Robbie Foster to help those in the Chumuckla area.

Big Dreams is a scholarship program Lewis actually started himself six years ago at Milton High School.

“If there would have been a Big Dream Scholarship when I graduated from Milton, I would not have gotten it,” Lewis said. “I went the untraditional route and was easily bored with what you would call the routine monotony.

“I would lose my mind if I did the same thing every day. About the only thing I do the same every day is get up and brush my teeth.”

Lewis, who use to work in the mailroom at Sony Music in Los Angeles, established the scholarship program at Milton High after finding success as a freelance producer. Last year eight Milton graduates were awarded scholarships to follow their dream.