Festivals Spotlight Virginia’s Rich Diversity

Starting with the Chincoteague Pony Swim, Virginia's summer and fall festivals are worth the drive.

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by Glenda C. Booth

Whether it’s fried chicken, peanut-butter sculpture, Harry Potter wizardry or bluegrass music, Virginia celebrates the state’s rich diversity year-round at festivals all over the state.  Here are a few coming up:

July 24, 99th Annual Pony Swim, Chincoteague 

Every July, the Saltwater Cowboys round up and corral around 250 adult wild ponies and 70 foals and swim them from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island to come ashore. After the ponies rest, they “parade” down Main Street to the Fireman’s Carnival for the foals’ auction.

Chincoteague’s ponies and the swim gained fame with Marguerite Henry's novel, “Misty of Chincoteague” and the film will show at the Island Theater for free during the festival. The Firemen’s Carnival, held July 22-27, is a fund-raiser for volunteer firefighters. It features rides, raffles, games, corn dogs and cotton candy.   www.chincoteague.com/pony_swim_guide.html 

August 5-10, 88th Old Fiddlers Convention, Galax

Virginia boasts the oldest and largest fiddlers’ convention in the world in Galax, where since 1935 Moose Lodge 733 has staged three days of non-stop pickin’ and singin’ and whoopin’ fans.  

On an outdoor tented stage, several hundred musicians compete for cash prizes in old-time fiddle, bluegrass fiddle, dobro, mandolin, dulcimer, bluegrass banjo, clawhammer banjo, autoharp, guitar, folk singing and flatfoot dancing. 

 Bands with names like Greasy Creek String Band and Wayfaring Whistle Pigs rip off tunes into the night and musicians jam and bond around the campground into the wee hours. Vendors offer handmade instruments and crafts, alongside greasy Polish sausages, funnel cakes and deep-fried onion “blossoms.” www.oldfiddlersconvention.com

Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 50th Virginia Scottish Games, The Plains

Piping, drumming, fiddling, highland dances, sheepherding, haggis, bridies, Gaelic lessons, kilts and tartans are front and center at the Scottish Games as clansmen and clanswomen gather in their traditional Highland attire.  Musicians of all skill levels compete for prizes in Scottish fiddling. The British car show is always popular. www.vascottishgames.org

Sept. 27-29, Neptune Boardwalk Weekend, Virginia Beach

Beach sand may be gritty, but artists turn it into sculpture at the International Sandsculpting Championship, the highlight of Virginia Beach’s annual Neptune Boardwalk Weekend, where artists from all over the world make elaborate sand creations up to 10 feet tall. The festival also has 20 music performances on two stages, a parade and 33 boardwalk blocks of food, arts and crafts.  www.neptunefestival.com 

Sept. 28-29, Queen City Mischief and Magic  

For a bit of the mystical and magical, venture south to Staunton, a town that becomes an enchanted village at a Harry Potter-themed festival now in its ninth year. Adventurers of all ages can meet Hagrid’s feathered bestie, Malfoy’s nemesis and Buckbeak, the Hippograff, who can detect evil deeds from miles away. 

Witchcraft and wizardry devotees can practice magic lessons with Hogwarts School professors and meet costumed actors.  If you’re really into it, come in costume, sponsors urge. It's “more than a muggle can manage,” touts the website. www.queencitymagic.com

Sept. 26-28, 20th Tri-State Antique Truck Show, Clear Brook

Chapters of the American Truck Historical Society show off up to 300 antique trucks, from pickups to early 20th-century firetrucks to early tractors at the Frederick County fairgrounds. Sydnee Ponn is a regular. “I have been involved with Tristate and ATHS with my pawpaw since I was about two years old,” he says on the website. “R Model Macks (red) are my favorite.” Visitors can amble around for hours and learn all the particulars about trucks from their owners, many of whom are collectors. www.tri-state-antiquetruckshow.com

Sept. 21-22, 47th Shenandoah Valley Apple Harvest Festival, Clear Brook

Be it Red Delicious, Rome, Stayman, Granny Smith or Winesap apples, Virginia growers produce five to six billion apples a year and harvest them from July to November.  In the fall, signs offering cider, apple butter, apple pies and all things apple pop up along roadsides.

At this event near Winchester, contestants compete in an apple pie-baking contest. The rules: (1) fresh apples only; (2) a homemade pie crust. www.winchesterappleharvest.com

Oct. 5-6, 12-13, 19-20, 55th Graves Mountain Apple Harvest Festival, Syria

Slurpy, orangey pulp gurgles and spurts at a low boil in a 25-gallon copper kettle over a gentle wood fire while attentive tenders stir and stir and stir some more with a long wooded ladle for up to 15 hours. This is a time-worn cooking ritual at the Graves Mountain Lodge Apple Harvest Festival, where the soupy mixture turns from light orange to a dark russet color – perfection.  This is old-timey apple butter-making in Virginia, the way Grandma did it and her grandma before that. The festival also features hayrides, a hay maze, music, hard cider, funnel cakes, pork rinds and homemade ice cream. Tickets required; attendance limited. www.gravesmountain.com  

Oct. 5, Gordonsville Fried Chicken Festival

Gordonsville is the self-anointed, “Fried Chicken Capital of the World.”  Every year, festival-goers honor the African-American women who from the 1850s to the 1930s sold fried chicken, pies and other foods to passengers through the trains’ windows as the trains passed through town. Today, fifth-generation women use their ancestors’ original recipes.  Festivities include a 5K chicken run, fried chicken and pie cook-offs, arts, crafts and live music. www.townofgordonsville.org/events/fried_chicken_festival.php 

Oct. 12, 37th Taste of Brunswick Festival, Lawrenceville

A Southern stew-cooking competition attracts thousands of ravenous appetites every October, where seasoned and very fussy stew-masters cook up more than 4,000 quarts of Brunswick stew, a tasty mélange born in Virginia in 1828.  

Serious Brunswick stew chefs insist on the critical ingredients: squirrel meat, bacon, onions, bread, seasonings and butter.  

To affirm for all time that it is special and originated in Virginia, not Georgia or some other conniving state, in 1988, the Virginia legislature declared in a resolution that Brunswick County is “the place of origin of this astonishing gastronomic miracle.” There’s even a Brunswick Stew-masters Association that trains the next generation in how to make an authentic stew. “For years our stew has created quite a stir,” promoters boast. www.tasteofbrunswickfestival.com

Oct. 10-13, Peanut Festival, Suffolk

Suffolk folks “shell-ebrate” the local legume every year and host the world’s only peanut butter-sculpting contest where aspirants mold creations from a five-pound block of peanut butter in 10 minutes. It’s an aromatic adventure too and can get messy when temperatures rise.

There’s a demolition derby, truck and tractor pull, motorcycle rally, horseshoe competition, cornhole beanbag tournament, music, fireworks and the crowning of the peanut queen.  www.suffolkpeanutfest.com 

Nov. 1-2, 67th Oyster Festival, Urbanna

Oyster aficionados swear they can identify a Virginia oyster’s origin from its distinctive taste and the state has several oyster regions. At Urbanna’s annual Oyster Festival, thousands honor this bumpy, gray bivalve and slurp and devour its slippery inner morsel, raw, breaded, deep fried, steamed, boiled, stewed, Rockefellered and frittered.

Along the town’s streets, shoppers can pick up oyster shell lamps, jewelry and knickknacks. High school bands raise the spirits and 125 floats parade through town.

The long-awaited climax is the official oyster-shucking contest of Virginia, where amateurs and professionals compete at breakneck speed to pry open oysters. It ends with a “shuck-off” between the top man and woman oyster shucker. Since 1960, officials have held the Oyster Queen and Little Miss Spat competition and crown the winners. www.urbannaoysterfestival.com

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Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Everywhere

This year is the 20th for Virginia’s Crooked Road Music Heritage Trail, honoring Southwest Virginia’s rich musical roots along 333 miles of scenic landscapes and 10 iconic venues that stage bluegrass and old-time music. In this part of the state, country and bluegrass music seems to ring out of the hills and hollers, off front porches and out of barn doors from formal and makeshift stages.

Some examples:

50th Anniversary of the Carter Family Fold, Hiltons

The original Carter Family — A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter —are among the earliest recording artists in country music, a trio dubbed the “First Family of Country Music.”  Their homeplace’s venue hosts weekly Saturday night concerts featuring some of the best regional country and bluegrass artists and will have a 50th anniversary show Aug. 3. www.carterfamilyfold.org 

10th Anniversary of the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Bristol

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum showcases the roots and evolution of country music in Southwest Virginia, like the historic 1927 Bristol Sessions, when the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers and several others recorded for the first time. The Rhythm and Roots Reunion music festival will unite artists from various genres Sept. 13-15. www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/museum

40th Anniversary of the Floyd Country Store’s Friday Night Jamboree, Floyd

They do a lot of pickin’ and singin’ every Friday night at the Floyd Country Store jamboree which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. It’s often a rowdy night of entertainment with crowds spilling out into the streets. www.floydcountrystore.com

20th Anniversary of the Ralph Stanley Museum, Clintwood

The pioneer of traditional, Appalachian, old-time music, Ralph Stanley, is honored at the Ralph Stanley Museum and Traditional Mountain Music Center which is celebrating the museum’s 20 years this year. Visitors can see some of his vintage instruments and awards. Hearing recordings of Ralph’s distinctive, plaintive sound pulls on the heartstrings.

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