Published: September 19, 2009 09:14 pm      

All’s fair in Cedar Bluff:

CEDAR BLUFF, Va. — A sun-splashed southwestern Virginia day welcomed thousands of visitors to the 32nd annual Cedar Bluff Heritage Festival as the western Tazewell County, Va., town with a population of about 1,100 people was bursting at the seams with guests.

“Everybody who runs a festival ought to come here and take notes from the people who put this festival on,” Mike Abel of Maxwell, Va., said. “They have music going on from two different stages and all of these activities from camel and llama rides to vendors everywhere.”

Linda Singleton, chair of the festival and president of the Cedar Bluff Business and Professional Association that hosts the festival every year said the event had a humble origin 32 years ago.

“We started out in this square with a tent and a country store,” Singleton said as the Appalachian Highlanders Pipes & Drums started their concert in the Cedar Bluff gazebo. “I think this festival shows that you can do anything if you work together. Anything is possible if you work together.”

Dale and Sarah Ball were all smiles as shoppers crowded their booth on Main Street across from the town square. Their store — The Potter’s Hands — is just up the hill from downtown Cedar Bluff at the Gateway Mall, but on this day, they were helping customers right across from the gazebo.

“I just like being out here with all of these people,” Sarah Ball said. “This is our third year, and this is fun.”

Singleton said that the festival draws people from as far away as North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky. “This is where you meet your friends and make new friends all at the same time,” Singleton said.

Cedar Bluff Town Manager Jim McGlothlin said there are more than 150 vendors at the festival and that police have estimated the crowd at 15,000 to 20,000 total visitors through the event that starts at 8:45 a.m., and wraps up at 6 p.m.

“Our vendors tell us this is the very best festival they participate in all year long,” McGlothlin said. “There are several thousand people here at any given time, but the police estimate is based on all the visitors who come throughout the day.”

Traffic was slow-going through town, and parking was at a premium with cars parked well beyond the Baptist Valley Road intersection on the east side of town and all the way up both sides of the U.S. Route 460 West, as well as to the traffic light of the on-ramp to 460 East.

“We wondered how it would go this year with the economy the way it has been,” Singleton said. “This has been great.”

Randall and Mary Ratliff along with their daughter, Austin were enjoying the festival — visiting with friends and shopping.

“This is great!” Mary Ratliff said.

“This is the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen here,” Randall Ratliff said. “I think its all about stay-cations. A lot of people aren’t going on vacation this year, and are doing things closer to home. I know we have ‘green days’ at work, and I think most people are conserving energy and saving money.”

The Ratliffs live in Cedar Bluff, and Randall Ratliff is a correctional officer at Keen Mountain State Prison.

“But if you want to hang around a little bit, my sister and her family will be here soon and they came down this weekend from Maryland,” Mary Ratliff said.

Dr. Joe Adair, one of the “Gold-level” sponsors of the festival was selling art from his booth, but his good friend, Jim Boyd, was just visiting.

“I enjoy coming to this festival,” Adair said. “It’s good to be able to visit with friends.” Adair worked as a dentist in Richlands, Va., for 43 years, and Boyd is chairman of the Tazewell County Industrial Development Authority.

Vegas on Fire lead guitarist Brandon Stevenson made a small apology before the band started playing Stage 2, the Big Top Tent. “We play rock music and it’s loud so some of you older people might not enjoy it.” Stevenson stopped in mid-apology, apologized for apologizing and the band let it rip. Listeners — young and old — applauded the performance by the visitors from Radford, Va.

It was the kind of a day when a gospel group could follow a rock band, and a bluegrass band would follow them with essentially no change in the make-up of the audience. But that is Cedar Bluff’s heritage.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com