Robbinsville – Graham County’s largest festival returned with a bang this year, after a yearlong hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered on Courthouse Square in Robbinsville for the annual Graham County Heritage Festival. Although this year’s festival only took place for one day, at least several hundred people attended. This year’s festival included children’s games, a cornhole tournament, a watermelon eating contest, several regional vendors, the Little Miss Liberty competition and a recognition of Graham County veterans.
The evening featured performances from the Haywood-based J. Creek Cloggers, Graham County bluegrass outfit The Jones Brothers and the Franklin-Based Johnny Webb Band. The night ended with a fireworks display.
Graham County Festival Committee Chair and Robbinsville Aldermen Brian “Taco” Johnson said he was happy to have the event back, even in if it was abbreviated this year.
“Normally, we have all the vendors and the scheduling and the bands and everything booked by January, but due to COVID, we didn’t even start planning until March, so we kind of threw everything together real quick, and we’ve had a pretty successful event today,” Johnson said.
He also said that despite the challenges faced due to the pandemic, this year’s festival had been a success.
“I’m glad to be back, and I think the people are too,” Johnson said. “That’s probably why our numbers are up as far as our crowd attendance, and people are eating like crazy, and it’s great. All of our vendors are making money, and that’s what they came here to do.”
He also spoke to the festival’s importance to the community, bringing people together and offering something to do in an area where there was often not much going on.
“This is one thing where the whole community can come out and socialize and just be outside,” Johnson said.
Like Johnson, Robbinsville Mayor Steve Hooper said he was glad to have the event back after the COVID hiatus. Hooper also said he hd counted at least 400 people with more event attendees coming in still.
“With what we went through last year, it was God’s blessing that we’re able to function, have music, all our vendors back, getting back and mingling together,” Hooper said. It’s wonderful to have it back.”
Hooper said the event brought an economic boost to the town, with people coming to the festival from the surrounding area and spending money while in Robbinsville.
It’s the togetherness, the smiles on people’s faces and everything, seeing people that I’ve not seen in a year and all,” Hooper said.
He also spoke to plans for next years Graham County Heritage Festival, when the county will celebrate its 150th anniversary.
“It’s going to be a shebang,” Hooper said. “This year is great, but next year is going to be spectacular.”
Graham County Festival Committee and Robbinsville Travel and Tourism Authority member Teresa Garland said she was glad to have the event again after the year off.
“There’s a few less vendors this year, but we’re just happy to be able to start back,” Garland said. “We talked about not having the festival at all again, because when we made the decision we were still not having outdoor events, so I think we took a leap of faith that we’d be able to do it, and we were, and we’re just happy to be back celebrating our independence, our soldiers and just being together.”