FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 7, 2005

Hot Tickets Coast to Coast

50,000 Tickets Already Sold to Customers in 31 States

Cincinnati, OH – Coming off an overwhelmingly successful event in 2003, the Tall Stacks Music, Arts & Heritage Festival 2006 is proving to be a national draw, with close to half of ticket sales coming from outside the Greater Cincinnati area, organizers announced today.

Cruise tickets went on sale to the general public Nov. 6. And as of the end of November, more than 43% of cruise tickets sold were purchased by people from outside the Tri-state area. Residents of 31 states – from Maine to California and even 4,000 miles away in Kodiak, Alaska – have already purchased cruises tickets for the popular festival to be held on the banks of the Ohio River on October 4-8, 2006. These numbers clearly show that this event is a major tourist attraction for the region.

“We know that local residents love the event,” said Mike Smith, Executive Director of Tall Stacks. “But these statistics also tell us that the Tall Stacks Music Arts & Heritage Festival – and thereby Greater Cincinnati – is being recognized nationally as a top tier destination for travel and entertainment.”

With the success of “Friends of Tall Stacks,” a new offering for 2006 that sold 1,000 memberships with early access to cruise tickets and over 50,000 tickets sold-to-date, numbers indicate that Tall Stacks ’06 is on pace to sell out of cruise tickets for the 2006 event, just as it did in 2003. Tall Stacks 2003 brought more than 900,000 visitors to the Cincinnati riverfront.

Another great feature selling quickly for Tall Stacks 2006 are the specialty cruises. Tall Stacks is pleased to announce that a number of high profile performers have committed to cruises for the 06 event. Grammy nominated Dukes of Dixieland Jazz Band, American’s oldest continuing Dixieland band, will be aboard the New Orleans Natchez and the internationally-known Stars of the Peking Acrobats will make their debut appearance at Tall Stacks aboard the famous General Jackson, a showboat based out of the Grand Ol’Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition, family fun cruises will be entertained by the world-renowned characters of Paramount Kings Island.

“Selling 50,000 tickets in less than 30 days is both overwhelming and exciting,” said Smith. “We are thrilled with how things are going and we anticipate tickets selling out again for 2006.”

For more information about cruise options and prices, visit www.tallstacks .com or call 513-562-4949 (local) or 1-866-5STACKS (Out-of-Area ONLY) .

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About Tall Stacks:

Tall Stacks, Music Arts & Heritage Festival returns to the Port of Cincinnati October 4-8, 2006. With 17 riverboats hailing from 11 cities and nightly headline musical entertainment onshore, the sixth installment of the popular festival expects more than a million visitors to the banks of the Ohio River. Official Tall Stacks sponsors include Edyth and Carl Lindner, Cinergy, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Kroger Company, Fifth Third Bank, Bud Light, Cincinnati Bell, Procter and Gamble and WLWT-TV. For information on the Tall Stacks Music, Arts & Heritage Festival, visit www.tallstacks.com.