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Blowing Rock readies for annual Winterfest event

Janelle Silverman - Entertainment Beat

The fourth annual Blowing Rock Winterfest will take place Friday through Sunday in downtown Blowing Rock.

The Blowing Rock Stage Company, the six-member Board of Directors and Chip Taylor, event coordinator for this year, organized Winterfest.

Winterfest will begin with free hayrides Friday at 3 p.m. at the intersection of Main Street and Highway 221.

Winterfest headquarters, located at the Blowing Rock Town Hall, will open at 5 p.m. to answer questions about upcoming events and to give directions to all Winterfest activities. Friday evening will end with a bonfire in Memorial Park starting at 6:30 p.m. and followed by Wintergrass Live!, with musicians playing mostly bluegrass-style music until 9:30 p.m.

Taylor said the Wintergrass Live! section of Winterfest is new this year. Joe Shannon and Mountain Home Music along with Strictly Clean and Decent will feature music from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and other favorites. The bands will play from 8-9:30 p.m. at the Blowing Rock Stage Company on Sunset Drive. Tickets for the show can be purchased for $12 in advance, $14 at the door for adults and $10 for children under the age of 13.

According to the schedule of events, Saturday morning begins early with headquarters opening at 10 a.m. at the Town Hall, and free hayrides and hot chocolate on Main Street.

The morning also kicks off with dog sledding demonstrations at Bass Lake in Moses Cone Park.

For those who prefer to remain near Main Street, alpacas will be brought out on the front lawn at First Citizens Bank, and snowshoe demonstrations will take place behind Sunset Grill on Main Street.

The rest of the day is packed full of fun events for the entire family, without even having to leave Memorial Park. According to Taylor, there will be a tent set up in the park through which a variety of entertainment will rotate. Storyteller Orville Hicks will entertain, along with nature talks by park rangers, Civil War reenactments with real musket demonstrations and the New River Zoo animals, which are new to Winterfest this year.

For adults, there will be a Silent Auction and Raffle at the Community Center on Main Street. People are encouraged to walk in and look around at the merchandise, which will be small arts and crafts donated by Blowing Rock merchants.

From 10-11:30 a.m., contestants in the Polar Plunge will jump into Chetola Lake on North Main Street. Parking for this event is available at Chetola Resort and Conference Center and at the Tanger Shoppes on the Parkway. According to Taylor, approximately 30 people will participate in this daring event.

Back in the downtown area from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., behind Memorial Park at The American Legion Hall, the Chili Challenge will take place with approximately 30 different cooks in amateur and restaurant divisions. There will be a $5 fee for anyone who chooses to walk around and taste each contestant’s chili.

The wine tasting and auction will begin at the Meadowbrook Inn at 3:30 p.m. Taylor said this auction will sell larger items such as furniture and expensive wine, along with several Blowing Rock vacation packages.

The night will end with a bonfire and music from Wintergrass Live! beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The main events Sunday will be a pancake breakfast from 8-11:00 a.m. at the American Legion Hall for a charge of $5. The dog sledding demonstrations will follow at Bass Lake. “[Winterfest] was started because it is now a dead time in Blowing Rock, and this is a good way to get people to come up in the winter time,” said Taylor.

Taylor said they have been organizing this event since October. “It’s all coming together and the response has been great,” said Taylor. Organizers have been getting calls from all over North Carolina, and there are many sold out hotels in the Blowing Rock area, said Taylor.

Tyson Foods and the Bob Timberlake Gallery, along with other major businesses such as Chetola Resort, Greystone Insurance and Tanger Shoppes on the Parkway are sponsoring the Blowing Rock Winterfest.

For more information about Winterfest, or to ask how you can volunteer your time, call Chip Taylor at (828) 295-9168.