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by LAURA TABOR
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
Where can you shop for local crafts, listen to renowned bluegrass music, run a mountainous footrace, and don a coon-skin cap?
This combination is available at Daniel Boone Days, happening today through Saturday.
The Town of Boone now has a festival in honor of its namesake, Daniel Boone, who reputedly had a mountain cabin in the area. The event was created to bring the community together.
“We wanted to
create a celebration that everyone could enjoy,” Sam C. Calhoun,
Impresario of Daniel Boone Days, said. “So, we decided to design a
festival that educated people about Boone’s namesake, as well as
provided good fun for all ages.”
According to a press release, the festivities begin today, with an open house at the office of the High Country Press.
Exhibits
from the Appalachian Culture Museum, the Daniel Boone Native Gardens,
and other local attractions will be available from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Tomorrow,
author and historian Robert R. Morgan will speak at the Daniel Boone
Symposium. Morgan, author of “Gap Creek” and “Boone: A Biography,” will
join local experts for a discussion at 11 a.m. that is open to the
public. Tickets are $2 .
“[Daniel]
Boone is one of the most important iconic figures in American culture,”
Morgan said. “The association with him has given Boone a special sense
of identity.”
Tomorrow
evening, two Fess Parker wine dinners at Casa Rustica and Gamekeeper
Restaurant will serve some dishes that Daniel Boone himself might have
eaten.
Saturday
morning starts off early at 8 a.m. with the Daniel Boone Chase
Footrace, which races around downtown Boone and then up and down
Howard’s Knob.
Then locals can come to Mast General Store at 11 a.m. for an attempt at a world record.
According
to a press release, judges from the World Record Academy will be
present to ascertain that Daniel Boone Days will have set the record
for the “Largest Gathering of People Dressed Like Daniel Boone.”
This
event, according to the press release, costs nothing to those who show
up and put on a signature coon-skin cap. The record attempt raises
money through sponsorship for the Watauga Education Foundation.
The
final event of the Days will be the Pioneer Festival at the Horn – a
music and cultural finale to the weekend’s activities. Among the
diversions will be arts and craft s vendors, a fiddler’s competition, a
Daniel Boone look-alike contest, local food and live music from bands
The Waybacks and the Lost Ridge Band. The show begins at noon.
Horn in
the West amphitheater has previously hosted music acts of this sort,
but recently has not had many live music performances.
“We are
really excited to see how things turn out,” Virginia N. Roseman of Horn
in the West’s public relations office, said. “We are hoping to bring
more local bands out in the future.”
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