Stars return Thursday

The stars will return to Hudson Family Park this week. And this year they’ll expand their reach beyond Jay County.
Stars in the Park, a local talent competition hosted by Jay County Chamber of Commerce, returns with its first quarterfinal at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Hudson Family Park.
In its first two years, all rounds of the event were held at the Portland park. This summer there will be just two quarterfinals in Portland, with the other two July 23 at Swiss Days in Berne and July 25 at Blackford High School in Hartford City.
“We have a lot of participation from both Berne and west, not only Blackford County but also Delaware,” said chamber board of directors vice president John Boggs. “We wanted to expand this year and work with some other chambers. … They both decided to jump up and say they’d do it.”
“With us partnering with other chambers … we’ll be drawing from their community too,” added Dean Sanders, executive director of the chamber.
The Berne and Hartford City chambers are paying their Jay County counterpart a sponsorship fee to be a part of the event.
Adding two new quarterfinal sites was part of an overhaul to the competition process, which previously included four quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals and finals on the same evening.
This year, six competitors from each quarterfinal will advance to one of two semifinal rounds to be held at 6:30 p.m. July 30 and Aug. 6 at Hudson Family Park. Six performers from each of the two semifinals will then move on to the final round, which has been moved to 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15 to make way for the rescheduling of the Trace Adkins concert at Jay County Fairgrounds a day earlier.
Boggs and Sanders noted that public comments were considered when making adjustments to this year’s event.
“Everybody we talked to just said that evening runs so long,” said Boggs.
“Too long,” chimed in Sanders.
“It’s a strain on the contestants to perform twice in the same night,” Boggs added.
Also modified slightly will be the system for advancing to the next round and selecting the winner of the competition.
Each quarterfinal and semifinal will send a fan favorite (fan voting only), the next four highest-scoring competitors (the judges will count for two-thirds and fan voting for one-third) and one judge’s save. The top three at the finals will be determined by the combination of judges and fan voting, and two fan favorites (17-and-younger and 18-and-older) will also be honored. The grand prize this year is $1,250.
This year’s competition again is dominated by singers, but Boggs noted that there are also a variety of dance acts as well as a comedian and a poet.
Ron Freeman will serve as the emcee for all of the rounds at Hudson Family Park.
Former winners Holly Rittenhouse and Gabe Bailey will serve as intermission performers Aug. 6 and Aug. 15 respectively.
Admission to each event in Portland will be $5, which includes three votes. Additional votes are $1 each.
Total attendance was about 1,300 last year, with nearly half of that number coming during the semifinal/final round. The goal for the chamber is to see attendance surpass 1,500 this year.
“I’d love to see a place where we’re just scrambling to find places for people to sit on the finals night,” said Boggs.
“We weren’t too far from that last year.”