Denison Main Street staff unveiled a new downtown music festival and several tourism initiatives during the advisory board meeting.

Speaker 5 reported on the Music Friendly program and said the new Rhythm and Rails Music Festival will take place Sept. 12 and extend across downtown venues with a seven‑piece headliner and venue time slots designed to encourage movement between locations. “We’re really excited about the logo,” Speaker 5 said, and confirmed that Discover Denison is sponsoring the headliner act.

Speaker 5 credited promoter contacts (Chris Romain) and local venue coordination for securing acts and a discounted headliner fee. Organizers plan to recruit venues via an interest form and expect the festival to spread visitors throughout downtown, complementing other fall events such as wine walks and Harvest Suite.

Separately, Speaker 7 announced that Expedition Texas (PBS) will feature Denison in a holiday episode; the crew will film the parade, tree lighting and Denison on Ice on Dec. 4. The board discussed opportunities for business owners to appear on camera and the potential tourism benefits of the broadcast.