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Festival organizers looking for a few good men, women

With Sylva' third annual Greening Up the Mountains street festival just around the corner (April 22), organizers have complied a list of essentials required to make this year's event a success.

Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, one of the three original components of the festival, plans an exhibit this year at the foot of the old courthouse steps. Amy Garza, co-founder of CSA, has requested that area "front-porch pickers" with mountain instruments join Lymon Powell and others for "Picking on the Steps." Powell, a legend in benefit circles, will conduct the music for a cakewalk around the fountain as long as the cakes hold out, Garza said.

Also at the CSA booth, mountain cooks are invited to enter their favorite dishes in the canning, pickling and baked goods contests. Other "mountain fair" contest categories will include quilting and handmade crafts. For more information, call CSA at 631-9203.

Greening Up the Mountains will also be the place for storytellers the day before Easter. Those with a story to tell, a secret to share or pictures to show are invited to participate in a new feature this year - Just Talkin' - on the lawn of the Hooper House. The event is being sponsored by the Jackson County Genealogical Society, which will also have order sales information available throughout the day for Volume II of the Jackson County Heritage Book. For more information, call 293-5227.

Spots remain available for those who would like to march up Main Street in the festival's official opening ceremony. The theme of this year's Parade of Many Colors is "Things That Fly, Connecting Earth and Sky." Line up for the parade begins at 9 a.m. on Railroad Avenue. For more information, call (828) 456-5164.

There's plenty for volunteers to do Friday, April 21, day before the festival, as well as the early morning hours on Saturday, said SPIR Director Karen Armel. Tents, tables and chairs all need to be set up with volunteer assistance. As the second of the original three festival organizers, Sylva Partners in Renewal will once again operate the festival information booth and be the meeting place for the Nature of Sylva, which has been scaled back this year to include bird and tree walks in downtown. For more information about how you can get involved early, call Armel at 586-1577.

Vendor space is also available along the Mountain Marketplace. Those with wares to peddle should also call Armel at the SPIR office.

Recycling contest entries will be collected again this year by the Tuckaseigee Community Alliance, the final of the festival's original organizing arms and its connection with Earth Day 2000. This year's recycling contest theme takes to heart the idea of "recycle, reuse, reduce." Recycling contest participants are asked this year to design a suggestion box for use at the county's staff recycling centers. For more information, call Avram Friedman at 586-4620.

Back to Archive: 03/30/00.