Thacker Mountain Holiday Party Draws Community Support in Oxford

Thacker Mountain Radio Hour staged its annual Holiday Membership Party for supporters on Friday evening at Southside Gallery in Oxford. The event featured the Thacker house band the Yalobushwhackers accompanied by guest vocalists, a roster of local and regional caterers and breweries, cocktails and wine, and event photography. An active online silent auction ran in parallel, with proceeds earmarked to support the show production.

The auction listed distinctive items that appealed to literary and cultural audiences, including vacation packages, a Faulkner tour, signed first editions, pottery, special music experiences and private classes. Organizers encouraged registration and membership as ways to sustain the program beyond one evening, using membership contributions and auction revenue to underwrite weekly or seasonal programming costs.

For Lafayette County residents the party served several practical functions. It acted as a fundraising engine for a locally produced cultural institution, generated business for nearby caterers and breweries during a peak holiday period, and reinforced Oxford as a gathering place for arts minded visitors and locals. Community backed events such as this shift some of the financial burden of programming from public grants to membership and marketplace activity, a model that can stabilize small scale media and arts operations while keeping events accessible.

From an economic perspective the combination of in person hospitality spending and online auction bids represents revenue diversification. Local vendors gained direct sales and exposure, while the auction format allowed supporters beyond the immediate area to contribute. Over time this mix of membership giving and experiential fundraising can strengthen the financial resilience of community media, especially in a county where cultural tourism and university related activity drive portions of the service economy.

The Holiday Membership Party underscored the role of local audiences in sustaining arts offerings. By attending, purchasing memberships or bidding in the auction residents helped maintain a locally produced platform for storytelling and music, and provided market support to small food and beverage businesses during the holiday season. Registration and membership information remained available for those who want to join or contribute to future programming.