Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510220012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That's because the popular Franklin County event is Saturday, Oct. 28.
The festival's organizer, Roddy Moore, has spent the last few days scrambling to try to make sure a crowd doesn't begin to form this morning on Ferrum's campus.
Most Roanoke-area publications and other media outlets advertised Oct. 21 as the day for this year's festival, Moore said.
Every year, the event - billed as "the largest celebration of authentic folkways in Virginia" - is held on the fourth Saturday of October.
Usually, that puts the festival somewhere between Oct. 20 and 25. But this year, Oct. 1 fell on a Sunday, pushing the fourth Saturday back to the end of the month.
"I'm a little worried," Moore said. "We've already received calls from people in 30 states, and they'll say, 'The festival is the 21st, right?'''
Apparently, Moore said, after the Roanoke Valley Visitor Information Center marked the festival down for Oct. 21 on its calendar of events, other publications borrowed the date without verifying it.
Many of the media outlets have told Moore it's too late to do anything about it.
The scheduling problem aside, Moore said the 22nd annual installment of the festival next Saturday will offer many of the same things that have lured people to the Franklin County mountains in the past: traditional styles of music, historic crafts, children's games, coon dog and horse and mule competitions, antique autos and famous storytellers. The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., rain or shine.
And the storytelling part of the festival has a new twist.
Five "colorful veterans" of the early days of Virginia stock-car racing - Paul Radford of Ferrum, Jabe Thomas of Christiansburg, Sonny Ray of Floyd, Melvin Smith of Newport and Joe Kelly of Richmond - will be featured in two one-hour sessions during the festival.
Also, those who use storytelling to their advantage the most - politicians - have been prohibited from handing out campaign literature during the festival. However, they can jump on a wooden stump and give an old-fashioned speech.
Reads a release from Ferrum College: "A lot of times festival-goers get caught in a sea of handshakes with candidates and their workers handing out campaign materials, bumper stickers, buttons, and generating impromptu discussions on why they should vote one way or another. Add to this all the litter that is generated by the discarded campaign materials and you have a mess. Well, not anymore."
Said Roddy Moore: "The stump's got a hole in it. I hope the truth doesn't get lost in it."
by CNB