Butterfly Festival adds concert by Indra Thomas

Soprano Indra Thomas, a member of the voice faculty of Shorter University who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera, will present a concert Saturday evening as part of the Butterfly Festival in Ringgold, Georgia. (Facebook.com photo)

Jason and Amy Carter launched a new festival last year as a way to thank their community for all the love and support shown them following the death of their daughter on Labor Day weekend 2016.

The Butterfly Festival was a way to surround themselves with friends, family, laughter and lightheartedness on Labor Day weekend, which they knew would be a difficult reminder of their loss. They made their new festival a benefit for the Katie Beth Carter Memorial Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships to a student at Heritage High School and at Jacksonville State University, both schools their daughter had attended.

More than 300 people from the Ringgold, Georgia, area turned out for that first festival last Labor Day weekend. The Carter family is building on that success with the addition of a concert to this year's event on Saturday, Sept. 1, at Heritage High School.

Opera star Indra Thomas, a faculty member at Shorter University, will sing at 7 p.m.

"We wanted to bring in someone who would draw a different crowd," says Amy Carter of the new concert. "My husband and I went to college with Indra at Shorter. We saw her perform about a year ago and we started talking about doing a concert in conjunction with the festival. We reached out to her and she responded that she would love to help.

"So we'll have family fun during the day. Then that evening, have something a little more sophisticated - a date night for mom and dad," says Carter.

Carter says the festival will offer inflatables, carnival games, food vendors, live music and 20 vendors selling everything from wood crafts to Mary K cosmetics.

"Just a lot of fun things for the family and kids, especially," she says.

Before the festival opens Saturday morning, a Walk for Life sponsored by Healing From Within Ministry will be held at 9 a.m., offering 3-mile and one-mile routes. Anyone who participates in the walk will get into the Butterfly Festival for $5, which is half of the regular $10 admission.

Saturday night, Thomas will perform a program of her favorite music from multiple genres. She will be accompanied by Julie Bearden Carver, also a friend of the Carters.

Anyone showing their concert ticket at the festival gate will also receive $5 admission to the Butterfly Festival.

For more information: www.thebutterflyfestival.com.