Halfway to Halfway to Everywhere brought people to downtown Emporia on Friday night and again for much of Saturday.
Unlike past years, the 2026 goal was to highlight local while looking ahead to bigger festivals. Founder and organizer Hank Osterhout liked what he saw this past weekend.
In past years, Halfway has brought musicians from across the country to Emporia. This year, aside from the featured act, Bob Log III, most of the musicians were locally or regionally based. Osterhout says the new format and the new focus was what Halfway needs for now.
Part of Osterhout’s recharge has come from seeing how Halfway has been received locally.
And Osterhout says it was vitally important to have a festival, even if it was scaled down.
Osterhout has said the ultimate goal is to have Halfway with more attendance than it had 3-4 years ago, when it had its heaviest attendance. With that in mind, there will be significant fundraising activity over the next year — including the Halfway Soiree from Friday, followed by an auction and a disc golf tournament next year. Osterhout would like to raise $50,000-$200,000 for next year’s Halfway.
Click here for KVOE’s YouTube channel with video from Halfway.
