May 12, 2006 - Tourism officials with the Knoxville Tourism & Sports Corporation (KTSC) announced today that "Boomsday" had been selected as one of the Southeast Tourism Society's (STS) "Top 20 Events" for the month of September 2006.

2006 will mark the 19th year for "Boomsday," the event that brings more than 325,000 spectators per year to Knoxville's Volunteer Landing and Neyland Drive for the nation's largest Labor Day weekend fireworks display. However, this year, "Boomsday" will be expanded to a three-day festival Sept. 1-3. In the coming months, details concerning the new three-day event will be released to the public.

"We are excited about building a new tradition with 'Boomsday' in expanding this great event to a multiple day festival," said Gloria Ray, KTSC's President and CEO. "We hope that this tradition will catch on and 'Boomsday' will become an even greater event - comparable to other multiple-day festivals like 'Thunder Over Louisville' and Chattanooga's 'Riverbend.' Being named a 'Top 20 Event' will help promote the 'Boomsday' festival to the masses, and we hope to see more than 350,000 people over the course of the 2006 event."

According to William T Hardman, President and CEO of STS, the "Top 20 Events" publication receives extensive exposure in print, media, web, television and radio in the United States and Canada with more than 400 of these outlets receiving "Top 20" listings. Additionally, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution prints the "Top 20 Events" as a regular quarterly feature of its travel section, and the events will be featured on the New Orleans-based radio show "Travel Talk Radio."

Founded in 1983, the STS is dedicated to the promotion and development of tourism to its member states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The membership includes state travel offices, attractions, hotels, motels, resorts, convention and visitors bureaus, airlines, car rental agencies, newspapers, magazines and other travel-related organizations. Its corporate partners are American Express, Amtrak, Delta Air Lines, Morrison Printing Company, SMITH, Southern Living Magazine, TRIPsouth and USDM.net.