Kids activities making return to this year’s NIBROC Festival

 The 2014 NIBROC Festival is getting a bit more kid-friendly again this year as organizers are bringing back a full slate of activities for youth during each of the three days of the festival.

Ice cream eating contests, magic shows, an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, a Cheeto toss and the good old-fashioned and more will be happening each day of the festival, Aug. 7-9, starting at noon each day in NIBROC Park downtown.

Maggie Kriebel, Associate Director of the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission, is organizing the activies and will oversee the events. She said the children’s activities are making a return to NIBROC at just the right time after a hiatus of a few years.

“I was very excited when the Chamber of Commerce came to me and gave me the opportunity to work with the children and to give them something to do outside of the traditional carnival,” Kriebel said. “And it’s all free! That’s the best part about it. The kids don’t have to worry about having any money.”

Being offered is a mix of kids’ events that have been popular at past NIBROC festivals, along with some new activities.

There will, of course, be things like a pudding eating contest, bingo, a cakewalk and hula hooping competitions. But added to the mix will be things like several stage magic shows and a roving magician, “Scream Factor,” modeled after the television show “Fear Factor” where kids will have to taste (i.e. jellybeans that taste like dirt or boogers) and touch unusual things, and even a timed downtown scavenger hunt where kids, along with their parents, will visit local merchants and follow clues in an effort to find the most items.

“It’s summer. The kids are looking for something to do and we have lots of fun things they can do now during NIBROC,” Kriebel said. “It should be a really fun three days for everyone.”

Kriebel said there are a couple of activities she’s particularly excited about.

She’s ordered an enormous Twister game so that kids can play a giant game of Twister in NIBROC Park. There will be a spelling bee where participants will be forced to spell words backwards, in keeping with the spirit of the festival’s name (Corbin spelled backwards), a “Whistle While You Work” event where kids have to stuff cheese crackers in their mouths and try to whistle a tune, and more insane and fun activities. There will even be an obstacle course where runners must negotiate balance beams, tunnels, and other impediments in an attempt to complete the course in record time.

Game King, a downtown retailer of new and used video games and DVDs, will be sponsoring a series of Nintendo Wii Mario Kart tournaments for anyone 14-years-old or younger as well.

Updates on events in NIBROC Park during the festival will be available on the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission Facebook page, or at www.southernkychamber.com/nibroc.

For more information on the NIBROC Festival, call 606-528-6390