Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon Forest Festival Is This Weekend; Air Show, Crafts Are Planned

The Gurdon Forest Festival will be held this Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27.

Gurdon's Main Street will be transformed Saturday into a midway of artistic displays, games, rides, food booths, contests, commercial displays and fun for everyone. All this excitement will be going on as bands and entertainers perform on the main bandstand.

The 16th annual Gurdon Forest Festival, sponsored by the Gurdon Community Development and Entertainment Club, has booked over 110 arts and crafts booths and food vendors for the special occasion, according to Freddie Horne, festival coordinator.

The festival will officially open Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. when organizers and local police will block off the downtown area of Gurdon.

In the early hours, the Gurdon Rotary Club will sponsor a pancake breakfast at the Senior Adult Center while artisans, retailers, politicians, and entertainers set up their wares and equipment in the arts and crafts areas.

Parade participants will line up for the opening parade at 10:00 a.m.

Bandstand shows will begin at 11:00 a.m. and continue each half-hour during the day. All shows are free and open to the public.

This year's entertainment will include the Brown Family from Arkadelphia; the Heaven Bound Trio from Gurdon; Sisters from Dyersberg, Tenn.; the Lemay Family from Whelen Springs; Terry Hughs, Winnie Clark, LeAndra Jester and Elizabeth Shepherd from Gurdon; the McGinty Family from Conway, Brown Oliver from Camden, Danny Kilcrease and Southern Grace from El Dorado and Jerry Hilton and the Ouachita Riverbottom Band from parts unknown.

The grand opening ceremony is scheduled for noon.

Special guests, royalty and politicians will be introduced. A short part of the program has been set aside for political speeches.

Other special events of the day include an antique and classic car show, three-on-three basketball, log sawing, softball tournament, carnival rides, Halloween costume contest, street dance, beauty pageant and new this year, a 5-K run.

The festival will also have an air show on Sunday afternoon at Lowe field on Airport Road in Gurdon.

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 and largest small town trade shows in south Arkansas. Attendance has reached as high as 6,000 and a large crowd is expected this year.

Each year the show attracts vendors from the Ark-La-Tex area and has participants from as far away as California. Special homecomings and class reunions have been planned for several families and graduating classes.

The Gurdon Forest Festival is a fund raising project for the Gurdon Community Development and Entertainment Club, a non profit organization.

Funds from the event go to support the C.D.& E. College scholarship fund, delegates to Boys State and Girls State, the Gurdon School band program, the Gurdon Senior Adult Center, the Gurdon Close Up Program, and other projects that help promote community development and entertainment.

For more information about the Gurdon Forest Festival contact Freddie Horne, coordinator, at 501-353-2588, Terry Norris, car show at 501-353-2947 or Billy Wells, pageant, at 501-353-4335.