It’s too late for this year’s Heritage Festival, but it’s definitely a “Thing You Oughta Be” doing for next year.
This past weekend was the (according to one of the organizers) 9th Halifax County Heritage Festival at the fairgrounds. I had conveniently ignored the previous years because I thought it was just a bunch of tractors. I’m proud to admit that I was totally wrong about that.
I was expecting about 100 vehicles in the parking field so when I got there and saw over 800, I was amazed. I had scheduled about 30 minutes to get enough photos and things to write about, but 4 hours later I was still going.
Yep, you’ve got old tractors there. You’ve also got a car show, a cruise-in, old racecars, machinery exhibits, vendors, kids’ activities, entertainment, food, animals, and an exhibit hall that was rather full. Once you got outside of the fairgrounds, you had 2 mud tracks for full & 1/4 scale tractor pulls.
Every exhibitor had a story and a big smile on their face when they told it. This festival could have lasted all week and there would still be stories left to tell.
Larry Clark was the emcee for the day and he said it all in this quote… “This is what America’s all about. You’ll notice that you have thousands of people around and almost no police presence. Nobody’s acting up and everybody’s having a great time.” Clark went on to say that the festival is continuing to grow and next year’s will be even bigger and better. Well, this one was almost too big to see in one day so I’m looking forward to the next one.
The Heritage Festival is a showcase event for Southside, and I was a complete idiot for not covering it nor attending until this year. It’s definitely a “Thing You Oughta Be” doing next year.
Thanks for this input, Bruce. We have been the same and never have gone. It seems to be thriving and growing and we will have to check it out…yes, too late for this year.
… and when I suggested that a full-time fairgrounds, in a better, larger, more accessible spot than the small Halifax County fairgrounds, would be a boon to Halifax County and the surrounding area, I was laughed at. The “Not From Around Here” factor kicked in hard, as usual, so my opinion carried zero weight.