Dan River Park will host the first Ararat Heritage and Music Jamboree Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is aimed at helping to promote Ararat and western areas of Patrick County which are part of its Dan River District.
The celebration represents a merger with an earlier event, the Free State of Patrick Festival organized by Tom Perry. It was held in 2009 at the Ararat Ruritan Club, raising funds for ongoing work at the new Dan River Park and a Ruritan Club scholarship.
Organizers promise a wide range of attractions and invite everyone to bring lawn chairs.
The upcoming heritage festival and jamboree will begin at 9 a.m. with the History/Heritage/Agricultural Parade through the Ararat community, starting at the Ruritan building and ending at Dan River Park at 419 Raven Rock Road.
Several bands are slated to perform there, including bluegrass, old-time, country and gospel. A platform will be available for dancing. A cruise-in, antique tractors, horses, buggy rides, hayrides, a T-ball tournament and cow patty bingo also will be part of the event, to end with a fireworks display around 8 p.m.
Admission to the Ararat Heritage and Music Jamboree is free, but food, produce and crafts will be sold by various vendors. Plants from local greenhouses also will be available and show-and-tell sessions highlighting farms in the area are planned during the daylong event.
Meanwhile, Perry, an Ararat author and historian, will be raising money for a scholarship named in honor of his parents, Erie and Betty Jane Perry, by donating proceeds from sales of his books there. The scholarship will aid deserving students in the Dan River District.
Perry plans to present photographic displays on the Mount Airy and Eastern Railroad, “The Dinky,” J.E.B. Stuart and Patrick County in the Vietnam Conflict. He also will have his new book, “Ararat, Virginia: A Guide From Willis Gap to Kibler Valley,” which highlights the businesses, history and attractions of western Patrick County.
Wayne Jones of Aiken, S.C., billed as the best interpreter in the nation of Gen. Stuart, is scheduled to be at the festival to portray the Civil War general born in Ararat.
Sponsors of the May 22 Heritage and Music Jamboree include Dan River Park, the Ararat and Red Bank Ruritans, Ararat Community Watch and Willis Gap Community Center.
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