The City of West Columbia’s Kinetic Derby Day is April 21.

“Our intention is to present something new and exciting for our residents, and to give visitors to West Columbia a day of unique fun and adventure,” said West Columbia Mayor Bobby Horton. “We are really looking forward to Kinetic Derby Day. It will be a good day for our community.”

“The series of events are best defined as an elaborate sculpture parade followed by soapbox car racing and plenty of art, food and family fun to make it the most-anticipated event of 2018,” said Erin Didyoung,” vice president of operations for Gosnell and Company Event Management, part of the Kinetic Derby Day organizational effort. Didyoung said there are only three other Kinetic Derby Days in the country.

The idea to bring Kinetic Derby Day to West Columbia came from Mark Plessinger, owner of Frame of Mind Eyewear, on State Street.
Plessinger is a strong supporter of the arts. At a planning meeting for the event, he said Kinetic Day should be considered an arts festival, but not in any way a traditional one.

“There will be a small representation of art tents and vendors, but overall it will be more interactive than that,” he said. “I’m just excited to work with people we know, and don’t know, so we can get everyone to understand their creative side.”

Registration for Kinetic Derby Day events has just begun, and organizers are undertaking the task of educating West Columbia area residents about kinetic sculptures and how to participate.

Registration and general information is available on the event website: KineticDerbyDay.com

Kinetic Sculptures are human-powered and do not contain motors, said Didyoung. . They can be as simple as someone in costume riding a bike or more elaborate structures like the flying pterodactyls that debuted at the Greater Cayce-West Columbia Holiday Parade of Lights.

Didyoung said Kinetic Derby Day organizers are talking to civic groups and local businesses to drum up parade participants. More than 130 have already pledge to attend the event and there are still several weeks left to publicize it.

House of Raeford is a sponsor of Kinetic Derby Day. Chuck Underhill is a House of Raeford, and F.L.O.C.K. representative.

“We love the idea of the Kinetic Derby Day,” said Underhill. “That’s why we’re involved. And we want to see kids involved in building the sopabox derby cars. We encourage ingnuity and creativity. We’re donating $250 to the middle schools so that teams can buy the materials to build a soapbox derby car.”

Underhill also said he thinks Kinetic Derby Day will be well-attended.
“I hope to see lots of people having a great time,” he said. “It’s good to see people crate cool things.”
“We have some very creative residents and business owners and we want everyone to commit to building something for the parade or racing a soapbox car,” said West Columbia’s event coordinator, Kelli Ricard, “This is a great family project or event for any group of friends”
Other sponsors of Kinetic Derby Day include Mooneyhan’s Auto Service, Adluh, and Aflac.

Following the Kinetic Sculpture parade at 10 a.m., the steepest 1,000 feet on Meeting Street will be the site of the soapbox derby racer. There will be multiple categories. Adults can compete as Art Cars or in the Need For Speed division. Kids will have their own area to race in several age brackets that all compete for the fastest time.

Adults and kids can register for free until March 15. There is a small fee for businesses to participate.
The Jasper Project is organizing the artists and art installations along State Street and the Boys and Girls Club of the Midlands is heading the kids area of science and fun.