BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The Harvest Fest is rapidly approaching – Sept. 16 and 17 – and will bring arts, crafts, food and fun to Martin County.
The festival officially starts at 11 a.m. Sept. 16.
“The Martin County High School JKG and journalism class is going to do the fifth annual speech contest. We have students from all the schools come and give a short speech on the stage. The students judge it and award the winners,” Kiwanis Club president Melissa Phelps said. “It’s been growing every year. It’s a good opportunity for them to speak in public. Marcie [Hanson] has taken this on – it was her brainchild – and it’s just grown every year.”
From 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Martin County 4-H will host its first-ever pet show at the Martin County Extension Office. The show is free.
“Bring your pets out,” said Phelps. “There’s information on the Harvest Festival and Martin County Extension Office Facebook pages.”
There will be pumpkin painting and pumpkin carving contests this year.
“The extension office is going to be available during that time as well with materials to allow the kids to come and paint and carve their pumpkins during the Harvest Fest,” said Phelps. “Then we’ll turn them in at 4 o’clock on the old courthouse wall. We’re going to display them there. You can bring pumpkins decorated from home or do them that day. The goal is to have activities for the kids.”
The pumpkin decoration station will be open 1-3 p.m. at 9 Holy Street.
The musical lineup starts at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, with Killen Tyme, followed by The Lonesome Goats 6 p.m., Black Powder Express 7 p.m. and The Tommy Webb Band 8 p.m.
“All this is free and is out behind the courthouse,” said Phelps.
Clyde Adams and Bill Preece are organizing a “Cruise-In” 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 17 in the parking lot beside First State Bank. For more information, contact Preece at 606-626-6348.
The parade is at 2 p.m. Sept. 17, with the lineup at 1 p.m. at Ray Fields Park.
“Tim Robinson has been gracious to let us use the lower part of the parking lot at the old middle school, which is now the White Oak Hill treatment center,” said Phelps.
About 60 Martin County High School students will be at the end of the parade and stop under the traffic lights at the old courthouse to perform a line dance in the middle of the road.
“That will be nice,” said Phelps.
Jackie’s Gymnastics will perform near the stage immediately after the parade at 3 p.m.
“Then we’ll do the duck race at 3:45,” said Phelps.
Joey Stepp brings his magic show at 4 p.m., while Appalachian Championship Wrestling gets underway at 5 p.m.
Music starts at 5:30 p.m. with Hannah May, followed by Hope Lafferty 6 p.m., Wesley Young 6:30 p.m., Savannah Young 7 p.m., Jack Ward & Friends 7:30 p.m. and Troy Carlois & Band 8:30 p.m.
Troy Carlois & Band’s new video “That’s My Girl” aired recently on The Country Network.
Vendors begin at 10 a.m. each day.
Scarecrow contest
In the meantime, the Kiwanis Club is challenging local businesses to build and display scarecrows to celebrate the return of the annual festival. Scarecrows should be on display through the month of September for the fifth annual Scarecrow Stroll.
This year, the scarecrow fun is expanding to include the whole county with two contests, one for businesses and one for residential entries.
Submit a photo of your scarecrow for voting on Facebook via Facebook messenger, or email them to kiwanisharvestfestinezky@gmail.com. Voting begins Sept. 12 and concludes at 2 p.m. Sept. 17.