The 2021 Bell Tower Festival Mission Impossible 2.0 kicks off today with several activities, and tomorrow holds even more for people to enjoy.

Saturday begins with the Jefferson Fire Department breakfast fundraiser at the fire station from 6-10am, followed by the Jefferson Parks and Rec Ding Dong Dash at 8am. A new event of the big wheel races will take place on the south side of the downtown square on Lincoln Way from 9:30-10:30am, which will lead into the Jefferson Rotary Parade at 11. 

The afternoon activities include the kids Touch a Truck in front of the Welcome Center from 12:30-2pm, Reunion Rendevous on the northside of the courthouse from 12:30-3pm, and the car show will take place at 1pm near Junkyard Cafe. The Jefferson Parks and Rec 3-on-3 basketball tournament will be in Russell Park starting at 1pm, a performance from Champions Forever will be on Lincoln Way a 1:15pm, followed by cowpie bingo at 2:30 on the south field near Shadran Industrial Services. A dunk tank and games will take place from 2-9pm on the east side of the square, along with trivia on the plaza stage from 3-4. 

Jefferson Matters: A Main Street and Chamber Community Events Team Chair Philip Heisterkamp explains the return of the “open concept” for those of legal age to enjoy an alcoholic beverage for both days of the festival, which starts at the beverage tent on the southeast corner of the square.

“In there, there will be kind of like a mini assembly line, where you’ll walk up, get your I.D. checked, get a wristband, move on down the line, exchange money for tickets, and then you’ll move on down the line again and exchange a ticket for a drink. You can now have an alcoholic beverage anywhere along the square, inside our steel barricades.”  

Other Saturday activities include the first-ever rib cook-off from 6am-4pm, an art show from 10am-5pm and evening musical entertainment on the plaza stage with Hawk McIntyre and Jake Doty from 6:30-8pm, followed by a Des Moines pop/rock cover band of Decoy from 9pm-midnight. Additionally, Raccoon Valley Radio’s Big Red Radio will also broadcast live from 9am-6pm Saturday.