John Connelly News

Vessels: Tall Stacks Draws 800,000 to Queen City

Every four years the excursion vessel segment of the commercial marine industry stages one of the largest festivals in the United States, yet except for the vessels that participate in it, little is known about this event. It overshadows the Workboat Show but receives little attention in the marine press. From an attendance standpoint, if this event were the World Series of Baseball, the Workboat Show would be T-ball for five-year olds. The event is called Tall Stacks and is held on the Ohio River every four year in Cincinnati, Ohio. The 2003 event was the fifth such Tall Stacks event and was attended by over 800,000 people during a five-day period in mid-October.