LITTLE MOUNTAIN — South Carolina’s oldest folk festival is coming this weekend.

The Little Mountain Reunion, which originally started as a reunion for Newberry College, will bring live music, rides and plenty of fun to Little Mountain.

“I hope we have a big turnout,” Mayor Jana Jayroe said. “I think it will be a lot of fun. There will be live music and entertainment for free, which is hard to find these days.”

This is a two-day event, with the festivities starting Aug. 5 with classic carnival rides on the baseball field.

“Palmetto Amusement will provide the rides. They will have the Ferris wheel, the swings, and they usually have inflatables and usually some other kind of scrambler thing,” Jayroe said. “You have to buy tickets from Palmetto Amusement. Rides will be both days, and it is geared for kids.”

At 7 p.m. the Keith Dominick Band will perform, and will continue performing until 11 p.m.

Food vendors will be there for both days and will include Steelhorse Smokehouse, ArtLee’s Street Eats, a funnel cake vendor, Mr. Mayer (with hot dogs and brats), sno-cones, an ice cream vendor and two peanut vendors.

Jayroe said she tried not to repeat food vendors to help give the Reunion versatility.

Barbecue also will be available from the Mid-Carolina High School Band Booster Club. It is being cooked by Little Mountain Fire and Rescue.

“All the proceeds from the barbecue will go to the Little Mountain Fire and Rescue and the Mid-Carolina High School Booster Club,” Jayroe said. “The town does not take any proceeds. They will just go to both of them. They are preparing on site this year so they will prepare right there by the Fire Department. They do a great job.”

A beer wagon will open at 6 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday and Enoree River Winery will have wine for sale.

After the festival closes Friday, the festivities will begin again at 7 a.m. Aug. 6 with the third annual Glenn Shealy Memorial Road Race, which features a 5K and 10K race.

Jayroe recommends signing up through Strictly Running, a link to which can be found at littlemountainreunion.info.

The parade is at 10 a.m. with Rep. Walt McLeod serving as the grand marshal. The junior grand marshals are Adriana Kear and Emily Mills, who came up with the T-shirt design as part of a contest put on by their school, Little Mountain Elementary School. The T-shirts will be for sale during the event.

“The theme (of the Reunion) is Small Town Proud, and that is what we gave them as the theme for the contest at Little Mountain Elementary,” Jayroe said.

Following the parade will be the political speakings, of which McLeod is in charge. Following that, the music will begin at Stage 1 with the Twang Bombers from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., followed by The Berries from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The music will then move to Stage 2 with Sly Dog from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and followed by the Band of Oz from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

This year, vendors also will be inside the cafeteria of Little Mountain Elementary School as well as outside. So far, 35 vendors have signed up. Vendors will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Attendees will not be allowed to bring coolers in and golf carts are not allowed in the park. Jayroe said they would prefer people leave their dogs at home this year after some children got scared by bigger dogs last year. Service dogs are allowed.

Visit littlemountainreunion.info for more information about the event.

The Little Mountain Reunion kicks off Friday at 6:30 p.m. with carnival rides.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_carnival-tickets.jpgThe Little Mountain Reunion kicks off Friday at 6:30 p.m. with carnival rides. File photo | The Newberry Observer

https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/LITTLE-MOUNTAIN-TSHIRTS-SMALL-TOWN-PROUD-2016.pdfFile photo | The Newberry Observer
Little Mountain event kicks off Friday

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@civitasmedia.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.