Published: July 03, 2008 01:45 am      

Rico a big hit at Summer Motion

ASHLAND — The performer who generated the most excitement on the opening night of Ashland’s Summer Motion festival on Wednesday didn’t play or sing a note of music.

In fact, he didn’t perform at all. He just sat at a folding table, Sharpie marker in hand, autographing hundreds of 8-by-10 glossy photos of himself.

But, for the hundreds of fans who queued up to meet Moises Arias, aka Rico on the Disney Channel’s smash hit TV series “Hannah Montana,” that was more than enough.

The diminutive 14-year-old actor’s appearance caused a wave of hysteria that might have reminded some of the older folks in the crowd of Beatlemania.

Some fans waited for several hours outside the floodwall to be at the front of the autograph line. When the gates opened, there was a mad rush for the tent where Arias would be set up.

Most of those in the line were preteen and tween girls and their parents. There were also few boys in the mix, though.

Ear-piercing shrieks — not just from the younger girls, but from their moms as well — filled the air when Arias, clad in a dark gray fedora and a gray button-down shirt over a red T-shirt, emerged from a backstage trailer.

His handler, a woman who said she wasn’t allowed to give her name or be quoted as an official source, laid out the rules: one autograph per family, no posing for photos with Arias (although fans were free to snap all the pictures of him they wished) and no personalized signatures.

The handler said Arias — who plays the nemesis of the title character’s brother, Jackson, on “Hannah Montana” — had been experiencing similar pandemonium at other personal appearances.

“He’s a very personable and popular kid,” she said.

Eight-year-old Halee Sweeney and her sister, Kameron, 5, were lucky enough to be at the head of the line when Arias started to sign.

“We came early and then we ran really, really fast,” Kameron said.

Katie Baldock, 10, of Ashland, said she was a huge fan of Arias and his show and it was well worth waiting in line for an hour to get an autographed picture of him.

“I’m probably going to frame it and put it in my room,” she said.

Her 7-year-old brother, Jacob, was somewhat less enthusiastic.

“He got drug along,” said Kay Memmer, Katie’s and Jacob’s grandmother.

Katie said she had no interest in sticking around to hear the Ventures and Kansas, the two bands who would be performing later on the riverfront.

“I was pretty much here for Rico,” she said.

Rachel Reeder, 8, of Louisa, was thrilled to be able to get Arias’ signature on the Hannah Montana T-shirt she was wearing. The shirt that had already been signed by Billy Ray Cyrus, who is the father of the show’s star, Miley Cyrus, in real life and on the program.

“We’re going to try to get all of the cast members to sign it eventually,” said Rachel’s mother, Stephanie Reeder.

Getting Miley’s signature might prove to be daunting, she acknowledged.

“We saw her in Rupp (Arena), but we didn’t get anywhere close enough for her to sign it,” she said.

Rachel’s 14-year-old cousin, Shanda Cordle — who sported jet-black hair and a T-shirt bearing the name of the hard-rock band Avenge Sevenfold — was also in the autograph line, but passed on the chance to get a signed photo of Arias.

She said she was too old for that sort of thing.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.