Heritage festival enjoys good crowd for Saturday activities By T.S. HORNE Staff The first day of autumn provided clear skies and warm temperatures for the thousands who attended last Saturday's Mountain Heritage Festival in downtown Sparta. People enjoyed food, music and a wide array of crafts including pottery, wood art, jewelry, plants, metal working, walking sticks, dried flowers, information booths, candles and others. There were also activities for children such as an inflatable slide, a bounce house and a petting farm. The festival began at 9 a.m. and ran through 5 p.m., with portions of Main Street and Whitehead Streets blocked for the event.

A large crowd gathered in front of the stage during the Heritage Festival Saturday.

"The weather was perfect," commented Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Leanne Murray. "I heard from many, many people who said that it (the turnout) was quite a bit larger than last year."

The annual festival is an event the chamber organizes for the community free of charge, and this year's attracted more than 70 vendors to the streets of Sparta. About one dozen food vendors were on hand to offer a variety of treats, ranging from chicken and dumplings to candy apples. Music and entertainment was provided by Fast Forward, Steve Kilby, the Boot Hill Cloggers, the Moose Family Gospel Singers, Melissa Crouse Malmfelt, the American Heritage Dancers, the Mountaineer Millenium pickers and a group of local bluegrass musicians.

"This is something the chamber provides for the community," Murray said. "It's kind of our gift to the community and we tried to make it something for everybody.

"If our measure of success was that everybody had a fun day, I'd say it was a huge success."

This year was Murray's first as organizer of the festival.

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