Salinans are ready for summer, which means the River Festival and the start of the 2019 Festival Medallion Quest.

The first Medallion Quest clue will be shared live from the steps of The Temple, also known as the Salina Innovation Foundation, at 336 S. Santa Fe Ave., at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 31, during the joint Quest launch and Festival Friday Night Live (FNL). Local musicians Everyday Lights will perform before the release of the first Quest clue.

The Festival Medallion Quest was launched in 2009 by Salina Arts & Humanities to demonstrate the creativity and connectivity that the River Festival embodies year-round. As of 2019, BE Wealth, owned by Brandon Ebert and Kevin Quinley, is the exclusive Festival Medallion Quest sponsor.

Since the Medallion Quest’s inception, thousands have taken part. The Medallion is a unique object designed each year by an artist. This year, six clues will lead Questers to find six separate Tokens – each redeemable for a prize package featuring either a reserved one-day picnic spot at the Festival or the opportunity to blow the Festival’s opening horn one morning. As each Token is found, a visual puzzle piece is revealed, combining to create a final clue to lead to the 2019 Medallion and its prize package.

Details and rules on how to play the new Medallion Quest are live at festivalmedallionquest.com.

The Festival Medallion Quest 2019 prize package includes:

• $1,000 in cash
• $1,000 in Festival Gift Certificates, to be used for purchases in the Fine Art and Craft Show or Art/Craft Demonstration Area, during Festival weekend
• Four complimentary Festival admission Buttons
• One on-grounds Festival parking pass (weather permitting)
• An invitation for four to attend the evening PREMIERE Art Patron Party on Thursday, June 13
• Four Smoky Hill River Festival t-shirts

In case of inclement weather, the FNL concert and Medallion Quest launch will be held inside The Temple in the Grand Theatre. Free parking is available in the lot immediately north of the building.

Activities begin at 5 p.m. and include Festival Buttons and T-shirts for sale, complimentary Pepsi products, and Chapman’s Take Away food truck will be on on-site. Prize drawings will be at 6 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. for a $100 gift certificate to be used at the Festival’s art shows. Rocking M Media is the designated media partner for the Medallion Quest launch and concert event.
Other event highlights include live radio coverage on 92.7 The New Zoo and live music by Everyday Lights from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. With a love for folk and jazz rhythms, Everyday Light’s unique instrumentation and improvised harmony gives them a fresh, creative sound that is best realized in their original music.

There is no cost to participate in the Festival Medallion Quest. Participants must be 18 years of age to claim any prize. See complete Medallion Quest rules at festivalmedallionquest.com or by clicking on the orange and blue Medallion Quest icon in the right margin of the riverfestival.com home page.

For more information on the Festival Medallion Quest or the Smoky Hill River Festival, call 785-309-5770, visit riverfestival.com or go to Facebook.com/SHRiverFestival.