Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

During October's Forest Festival; Set To Begin The 28th

October is festival month in Clark County and on October 28, Main Street of Gurdon will be transformed into a midway of artistic displays, games, rides, food booths, contests, commerical displays and fun for everyone. All of this excitement will be going on while live bandstand shows accompany the day's events.

The 15th Annual Gurdon Forest Festival, sponsored by the Gurdon Community Development and Entertainment Club has already reserved over 95 arts and crafts booths and expect over 125 for the big event, according to Ffreddie Horne, festival coordinator.

The festival will feature a Warm-Up Show Friday night, October 27, with a street dance featuring Judy King and the band Crosswind from El Dorado. Band members include Vance Protho, Cliff Morton, Tony Rogers and Matt King.

The festival will officially open Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. when organizers and local police block off two full blocks of Main Street and two full blocks of 2nd Street in the downtown area. In the early hours artisans, retailers, politicians and entertainers will set up; their wares and equipment while parade particpants line up for the 10:00 a.m. parade downtown. "Anyone can be in the parade. There is no entry fee. Just meet at the high school parking lot about 9:30 a.m.." stated Horne.

This year's line up of entertainers includes The Believers from Sparkman, The Hawkins Family from Hot Springs, The Heaven Bound Trio from Gurdon, The Brown Family from Arkadelphia, The 3-Bells from the `50's from Little Rock, Winnie Clark, Terry Hughes, Leandra Jester, Elizabeth Sheppard from Gurdon, Stanly "Elvis" Crossley from Sparkman, The Reunion Singers from Dyess (near Memphis); The Prescott Good Time Dancers from Nevada County, Johnna Bryan from Prescott, Christy Cox from Delight and The Lemay Family from Whelen Springs. Shows begin at 9:30 a.m. and continue about every half hour until 7:00 p.m. All shows are free and open to the public at the Main Street band stand.

The Grand Opening Ceremony is scheduled at noon. Special guests, royalty, and politcians will be introduced. A short part of the program has been set aside for political speeches.

The festival began as a centennial celebration for the City of Gurdon in 1980. The reaction was so favorable the community decided to have a festival each year. The annual event has grown from a hand full of arts and crafts booths to one of the finest trade shows in south Arkansas. Attendance has reached as high as 6,000 and a large crowd is expected for this year. Each year the show attracts vendors from the Ark-La-Tex area and has participants from as far away as California. Speical homecomings and class reunions have been planned for several families and graduating classes from the area.

The Gurdon Forest Festival is a fund raising project for the Gurdon CD&E Club, a non-profit organization. Funds raised by the club go to support the CD&E Club scholarship fund, Boys and Girls State, The United Way, the Gurdon Close Up Program, the Sr. Adult Center and other projects that help promote community development and entertainment. The CD&E Club and it's members will not be responsible for accidents that may occure during the public event.

For more information about the festival contact Freddie Horne at (501) 353-2588 or Terry Norris at (501) 353-2947.