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Eagleville 3rd Annual Craft & Bluegrass Festival
By Glenda Dyer
Hundreds of people attended the third annual craft and bluegrass festival at the Eagleville City Park Saturday.
Some traveled from as far away as Chattanooga to hear such bands as the Rank Strangers, Hollow Creek and the Dillon Band perform. Many of the out-of-town guests said they were followers of festivals where bluegrass music is played. The high-stepping Tennessee Country Cloggers also entertained the crowd.
The
Rank Strangers, which started off the music at 11 a.m., was the first band to
play at the new park.
Among the activities at the festival was a games area laid out on one of the ball fields by the ROTC group from Eagleville High School. Besides playing an assortment of skills games, youngsters could also crawl through a low to the ground obstacle-type course and could also propel themselves in a harness along a cable stretched between the backstop posts.
Vendors offered a variety of foods, including home-made style lemonade, shaved ice cones, boiled peanuts and more. Among the favorites at the park’s concession stand were fish dinners and "loaded" baked potatoes topped with barbecue meat.
Other vendors offered wares such as hand-made walking canes, knives, artwork, jewelry, antiques, hand-made wooden toys, other crafts and more.
One of the favorite competitions at the festival was a Halloween costume contest, which included youngsters dressed up as ballerinas, a bee, pirate, octopus, hillbilly, milkmaid, and hobo.
Winners in the nine and under category were the milkmaid, whose name was unavailable at press time, and Shelbie Mooneyham, who was dressed as a hobo. Katlyn Vanetta won the older group competition. She was dressed in a black costume with a skeleton mask.
A version of an old-fashioned cake walk was also held. Because the baked good categories also included pies, brownies, cookies and breads, this competition was known as a "bake walk."
Among the bake walk winners were Rosa Binson, who took home a fudge pie made by Phil Williams. Amber Underwood won a caramel cake made by Margaret Ryan, Hannah Underwood won a strawberry cake made by Nell Lynch, and Tate Adams won a butterscotch banana bread loaf made by Sherri Whisener.
The baked goods entered for the bake walk were also judged. Winning in the brownie and cookie category was Melissa Buchanan’s chess squares with Whisener’s bread winning in the bread category.
Terry Ezzelle’s devil’s food cake with homemade caramel icing won in the cake category, and Lela Rooker’s chocolate pie took top honors in the pie category.
Tate Adams’ pumpkin won in the pumpkin decorating contest.
Among the many volunteers who helped out at the festival was Cory Call, assistant branch manager at Regions Bank in Eagleville, who served as emcee.
Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill, who chairs the park committee, said he was very pleased with this year’s festival.
"It seems like everyone had a good time, and the weather was great," Hill said. "There was a lot going on at once, and something for everyone."
The proceeds from the festival will go toward park projects. The total amount of funds raised on Saturday was not available at press time.
Current plans are for the 4th Annual Craft & Bluegrass Festival to be held next year on the second Saturday in October at the city park. The festival was held downtown last year, and this year was the first time it was held at the park.