Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 30, 1993 TAG: 9303300100
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BECKY HEPLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Barring interference from Mother Nature, the annual Huckleberry Trail Festival happens this weekend.
The three-day event is a collage of art, science, history and culture, spiced by food and music from around the world. The festival has all the old favorites, and Saturday there will be free shuttle service to all events.
The Blacksburg Junior Woman's Club is sponsoring its Antique Showsale and Quilt Show, with 22 dealers from several states be selling furniture, jewelry, china, crystal, vintage clothing and tools. There also will be crystal and porcelain repair services.
The Voluntary Action Center's Brush Mountain Arts and Crafts Fair will be set up in Rector Field House at Virginia Tech. Amid the array of crafts, expect to find such seasonal offering as fly-tying and Ukranian eggs.
Entertainment covers jazz, Appalachian, barbershop, folk, big band and poetry reading - and a few surprises. There also will be children's activities.
The Council of International Student Organizations once again is sponsoring a street fair to celebrate International Week 1993, with 30 countries represented Saturday at booths along College Avenue and Draper Road. Festival-goers can sample food, music and games. "We're bringing the world to downtown Blacksburg," said Cranwell International Center director Darlene Grega.
Smithfield Plantation also opens for the season this weekend. Participants can tour the house and grounds to get a picture of Colonial and frontier life.
The Virginia Museum of Natural History is participating this year with behind-the-scene tours of its collections. On Saturday, the museum also is sponsoring "A Hunt for Morels," a woodland hunt for the delicacy that mountaineers call "merkles," mushrooms with a meaty taste.
Blacksburg High's auditorium is the scene for two free performances: The Blacksburg Community Band plays Friday at 8 p.m., and Saturday at 7 p.m. the Blacksburg Ballet School dances "Kathy's Birthday," a story ballet.
Virginia Tech's admissions office is giving campus walking tours Saturday from the Burruss Hall lobby at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. for an insider's view of the school.
If you want to walk on the wilder side, Friends of the Huckleberry plans hikes of the trail. Saturday at 11 a.m., the group will tour the current paved trail. Saturday at 3 and Sunday at 2 p.m., participants will hike the new section. Be prepared for steep slopes and wet areas. Hikers will meet at Rector Field House for the 1 1/2-hour hikes.
Free shuttle service by Blacksburg Transit will visit all sites all day Saturday.
The festival has had an interesting evolution: Twenty five years ago, the junior woman's club, taking advantage of Parents Weekend crowds, held an antique show. It was the same with the Brush Mountain Arts and Crafts Fair, which started a couple of years later.
Other events began to get on the Parents Weekend bandwagon, so last year the groups thought a more unified approach would save money and expand marketing efforts. Thus began the search for an organization and a festival name.
"We wanted something that reflected the area, but was less generic than New River Valley," said Betsy Webb, publicity coordinator for this year's festival. "That's when we decided upon `Huckleberry Trail'."
The effort came in the nick of time. Tech discontinued the spring Parents Weekend this year, but the surrounding events, popular as they are, have a life of their own.
by CNB