Friday, August 14, 2009

Va. Highlands Festival keeps folk crafts alive

Last weekend, we visited the Virginia Highlands Festival in Abingdon, Va. — a yearly stop when I was a child. I've included some snapshots of the goods; if you are ever in southwest Virginia in August, it's a must-stop. Vendors come from all over the south offering their wares, many practicing old-fashioned Appalachian folk arts they learned from their parents and grandparents.

One man sold these gorgeous pearl strands, $85 a necklace.

A classic glass menagerie; that booth has been at the festival as long as I can remember, and I've been going to the festival since I was a kindergartner.

Sean holds up a hand-carved walking stick from The Stickery, made by Les Smith.

Flavored honey straws fresh from a farm in Lebanon, Va.

And hundreds of flavors of jam (we saw garlic jelly, lemon meringue pie jam and more). 

2 comments:

Bret said...

i miss the festival!! spiral spuds are the shit. i also miss that time we got free shaved ice from the ladies who recognized us.

i also bought a glass duck a LOOOOOOOONG time ago there. i also used to bug mom/bethany into paying $2 to get into the antique tent even though i never had any reason to look at anything and usually ended up board.

Amber said...

i dragged you there once, too!