PINEVILLE - The Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2005. An event rich in tradition, grace and charm the annual Festival is something the entire Commonwealth of Kentucky can be proud to have in our state. This year's festival, as in the past, takes place on Memorial Day weekend, May 26-29, in historical Pineville.
Each year more than 300 local volunteers donate countless hours to help plan and develop an event that is a unique treasure. Children, teen-agers and adults of all ages work together to beautify the downtown area by planting flowers, handcrafting flags for display around the town's square, placing pink and green bows (festival colors) on homes, and painting mountain laurel bouquets on the sidewalk corners. This event is possible as a result of a tremendous sense of community pride, with participation of newcomers and old-timers alike. People build floats, decorate, cook and open their homes to complete strangers, as well as family and friends. College queen candidates, who are chosen to represent their schools, are overwhelmed by the sense of true Southern hospitality they encounter when they arrive in Pineville.
The festival is much like the flower after which it is named. The mountain laurel is one of the handsomest flowering broadleaf evergreens, surpassing the rhododendrons in its finest forms. Many gardeners wax poetic over the wonderful floral display of this species. Much of the same can be used to describe this unique event called the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival.
The Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival is Kentucky's oldest festival. It was begun in 1931 by Annie Walker Burns as a way to honor her famous ancestor, Dr. Thomas Walker, a pioneer explorer and the first white man to enter Kentucky (prior to Daniel Boone's explorations into Kentucky). Historical journals document that in 1750, Dr. Walker camped where the city of Pineville is now located.
The dedication and devotion of so many people, along with the rich history of the festival, have enabled this unique and beautiful event to survive as well as thrive. It is well worth the drive to take in one of the Commonwealth's finest events.
The festival opens on Thursday evening, May 26, with the introduction of the university and college queen candidates and the princess candidates from area high schools prior to Thursday evening's featured entertainment. This year's entertainer will be Columbia Music country singer Trent Willmon. Candidate introductions and the Trent Willmon concert will be held at Bell County High School gymnasium.
On Friday and Saturday, May 27 and 28, Pineville's Courthouse Square will be filled with art and craft vendors and unusual food items. Friday evening brings the coronation of the 2005 KMLF Princess at Pineville High School gymnasium. Saturday morning features the annual Fun Run at 8 a.m. followed by the gala parade, filled with floats, bands, queen candidates, scout troops, antique cars, the entertaining antics of the Shriners, and much more. At noon, the Governor's Luncheon honors the sitting governor of Kentucky, with a special invitation to all former governors.
At 2 p.m. on Saturday, all attention turns to the beautiful Laurel Cove Amphitheater in Pine Mountain State Park for what has become known as "America's Best Outdoor Beauty Pageant," the coronation of the new Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival Queen. At the coronation the Master of Ceremonies introduces the reigning queen and calls for the Governor of Kentucky to join him on stage. Each candidate, representing Kentucky colleges and universities, is introduced and enters down the stone steps cut from the towering limestone cliffs blooming with white and pink sprays of mountain laurel and back dropped by lush green rhododendron.
Each candidate moves toward the audience as secret judges continue an evaluation that began on Thursday when the young ladies arrived in Pineville. The required curtsey in the traditional, long white evening gown is an elegant spectacle, especially with the captured reflection from the water of the curved pool.
As the audience waits, entertainment is presented from the stage. Soon, the Master of Ceremonies will call for all aisles to be cleared and music will herald a procession through the crowd and down the grassy pathway toward center stage. The procession is made up of the Miniature Court, tiny first grade girls dressed in pink who sit demurely at the edge of the reflecting pond, followed by high school court attendants, costumed in matching garments moving to encircle the stage. The queen candidates, crown bearer, pillow bearer and standard bearers make up the last of this queenly processional.
The Queen then follows with train bearers who carry her elegant satin train, handmade many years ago, as the procession continues to wind through the audience to the stage where the governor of Kentucky receives a hand crafted crown made of live mountain laurel blossoms. He places the crown upon her head , and with a kiss, the governor presents the new queen to the crowd which honors her by singing "My Old Kentucky Home."
Sunday morning features a community worship service and the Queen's Breakfast at Pine Mountain State Park Resort Lodge. It is here that "Miss Congeniality" and "Most Popular Escort" is named.
All KMLF events are family oriented; many are free and open to the public; those requiring tickets are reasonably priced. For a free schedule of events and ticket information, contact the KMLF office at P.O. Box 151, Pineville, KY 40977, or call (606) 337-6103 or call the Bell County Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-988-1075 or (606) 248-1075.
Post a Comment
