First Posted: 10/16/2013
FAIRMONT —The Robeson County Fairgrounds may be empty, but downtown Fairmont will keep the hoopla going with food, music and fun for two days this week.
The 27th annual Fairmont Farmers Festival will be held today and Saturday in downtown Fairmont. The festival will feature a parade, fair food, arts and crafts, a performance from the Fantastic Shakers and the sixth annual Farmers Festival Golf Tournament at Fairmont Golf Club.
Miss North Carolina 2013 Johna Edmonds will give opening remarks with Mayor Charles Kemp at 9:40 a.m. on Saturday before riding down Main Street in the parade.
Charla Tedder Parker, named this year’s top physical education teacher by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, will serve as the parade’s grand marshal. Parker graduated from Fairmont High School in 1977 and teaches at Fuquay Varina High School in Wake County.
The golf tournament, which is sponsored by the Fairmont Chamber of Commerce, will kick off the two-day festival at 1 p.m. today. Horshoe and corn hole tournaments will be held behind the post office at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Registration is $20 per team and proceeds benefit Fairmont Civilian Dixie Youth Baseball.
Concessions and arts and crafts will be available between Center and Red Cross streets until 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Puppet Love will hold two shows, “Say No to Drugs” and “Stay in School,” in Fairmont Community Park at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday. Other entertainment includes a visit from Dora the Explorer and a dunk booth sponsored by South Robeson Rescue.
Festival chair Jane Powell said Stephen Love, a Fairmont resident who won the My Time to Shine talent competition in Lumberton in August, will also perform at the park.
The Fantastic Shakers will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the People’s Warehouse at 2300 Industrial Drive. Tickets for singles are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets for couples are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.
Powell said the festival honors Fairmont’s history as one of the region’s largest tobacco markets.
“We were … the top five percent on the east coast,” she said. “By lunch time every day, it sold a million pounds and I don’t remember a day when it didn’t sell a million pounds. That’s what built Fairmont. We’re trying to celebrate the farmers.”
For information about the Fairmont Farmers Festival, visit www.fairmontnc.com.
