CORBIN — By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

It’s cowboy boots and top hats, rhinestones and organza.

It’s what happens when hipsters meet the Red Hat Society.

It’s, well, kind of hard to describe... but it’s called “gypsy chic” and it’s the theme of Saturday’s inaugural Moonbow Charity Prom.

“This is a great time to bring out the child in you,” said  Dora Mobley, owner of Alley Stuff antiques and one of the organizers of Saturday’s event, “like a little girl getting dressed up for a tea party.”

The Moonbow Prom is the main event at this weekend’s Moonbow Nights festival downtown. Adults and kids are encouraged to dress up in bright, vintage prom dresses and suits, embracing the tacky and the kitsch. The gypsy chic look calls for flowing skirts, cowboy boots, top hats, feathers and tons of jewelry — an idea borrowed from some other fun-loving Southerners.

“They have this big antique event out in Texas, and one of the events is what they called the ‘Junk-O-Rama Prom.’ ... In Jackson, Mississippi, they’ve got the Sweet Potato Queens, and they wear tiaras and go-go boots,” Mobley said.

 Those in attendance at Saturday’s Moonbow Prom will also vote on a best-dressed prom king and queen. A wooden outhouse (fake, we hope) will be set up by the stage for couples to take “prom photos.” The stage itself will be decorated with antiques and oddities from Alley Stuff and Sally’s Alley, two downtown antique shops.

The Moonbow prom starts at 8 p.m. featuring The 23 String Band, a Kentucky group that weaves together old-time, bluegrass and acoustic roots music using banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin and upright bass. (You may have seen them earlier this month at London’s Thursday Night Live.)

The prom and concert are free to the public, but Main Street will be selling covered tables for those who want to have a reserved seat. Six-seat tables can be reserved for $100, and four-seat tables for $75. Main Street Manager Sharae Myers said tables will compete for a best-decorated trophy. Money raised will go back to support the Main Street program.

After the prom, a free shuttle bus will take people to Cumberland Falls State Park for a glimpse at the moonbow — a unique phenomena that creates an arc of white light over the falls during a full moon. The bus will leave at 10 p.m. and take the first 50 passengers to see the moonbow over the park’s waterfall. The best viewing time is about 11 p.m. The bus is expected to leave for its return trip to Corbin by midnight.

Myers added that special parking arrangements have been made for the bus — last year, so many cars were at the falls that the bus got stuck behind illegal parkers.  

But Moonbow Nights actually starts during the day, when craft and antique booths will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.  downtown.

“We’re probably going to have about 25 vendors with arts, crafts and photography, and Alley Stuff, Sally’s Attic and McBurney’s are doing big antique sales,” Myers said.

There will be outdoor sales along Main Street, Depot Street and in Nibroc Park, along with several food vendors — the Lions Club will be selling cotton candy and funnel cakes, and a brick oven pizza maker and bread baker will be coming up from Asheville, N.C.

There will also be inflatable games, a dunking booth and a mechanical bull ride available all day. From 3-5 p.m., the game truck will be downtown, giving kids and teens a chance to play video games with up to 16 players at a time.

Music will be on the vacant Main Street lot behind the Times-Tribune and begins at 2 p.m. with the Corbin Community Band. Local singer Erica Bowlin will perform at 3 p.m., followed by gospel bluegrass group New Way at 5 p.m. and singer Courtney Norvell at 7 p.m.

The main attraction, The 23 String Band, takes the stage at 8 p.m.

Also on Main Street, the Moonbow Coffee House will host a coffee tasting at 2 p.m. Saturday, offering folks the chance to learn about the differences in coffees, lattes, cappuccinos and more.

At 7 p.m., the Falls Road Runners are sponsoring the second annual Moonbow Mile. The race begins in front of Nibroc Park. Main Street will be closed to traffic for the race but open the rest of the day.

Myers said she’s fielded dozens of calls from an article about the event in last month’s Kentucky Living magazine and is expecting visitors from all across Kentucky.

Among the out-of-town visitors will be Kentucky filmmaker Sam Koltinsky, who’s returning to Corbin after two years to film the progress of the town’s Main Street program. Corbin will be one of several communities featured in Koltinsky’s “Let’s Paint the Town!” a documentary series on downtown revitalization that has been picked to air on PBS stations across the country.

The producers  visited Corbin at the onset of its Main Street Program and will be returning to get footage from Moonbow Nights.

“This documentary has been two years in the making,” Myers said. “They came here and first filmed when we were very first getting started, so this is going to be the follow up on how far we’ve come since then.”

The project received recent award nominations from the National Trust for Preservation and the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO).

For more information on Saturday’s Moonbow Nights, or to reserve a prom table or vendor booth, call Sharae Myers at 606-215-0127 or email sharae.myers@corbin-ky.gov.