PARKERSBURG - The 2010 West Virginia State Honey Festival will be Aug. 28 and 29 at Parkersburg City Park.
The festival will run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 28 and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 29. Admission is $2 per person each day, children ages 6 to 12 are $1 and children 5 and under enter free.
Now in its 30th year, the honey festival will feature a variety of activities, entertainments and displays. Tom Riddle, one of the festival's organizers, said two new additions to this year's event would be displays by the Mid-Ohio Valley Model Railroad Club and a Civil War artillery display and demonstration by Carlin's Battery D.
Riddle said the main purpose of the Honey Festival remains the same.
"The focus is to promote the honey industry, as well as having crafts, entertainment, the bee beard, of course, is the big thing and the West Virginia Honey Princess Pageant," he said.
The festival will feature crafts, a honey and wax show, honey and beeswax products, a honey bake contest, honey extraction and live beehive demonstrations, candle dipping and cooking demonstrations, historical presentations and live bee beards by Steve Conlon.
There will also be a West Virginia Honey Car Show by Pioneer Antique Auto Club. The Antique Car and Truck Show will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 28 at City Park.
Registration for the car show will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The entry fee is $10 for the show and admission to the Honey Festival. A free T-shirt and dash plaque will go to the first 100 entries. Cars will be judged about one hour after arrival. Fenton bells will be awarded to the top 30, best of show, best original and best street rod.
Returning for a third year to the honey festival in place of the children's arts and crafts activities of previous years, Riddle said the "History Hitting the Road" program from The Historic Area at West Virginia University's Jackson's Mill in Weston has proven very popular. It is an education outreach program designed to introduce participants to 19th century heritage arts and trades.
Demonstrations and activities may include woodworking, candle making, spinning, weaving, corn shelling and grinding, period toys and games, transportation, blacksmithing, paper marbling, animal tracks and skins and other heritage-related activities.
The festival's live entertainment will include the Larry Neely Band, Emily Emrick, and New King's Messengers.
The festival will be holding its annual West Virginia Honey Princess pageant for girls from ages 8 to 11 at 11:15 a.m. Aug. 28 during the festival. Devon Anderson served as 2009 West Virginia Honey Princess and will turn over her title to her successor at the pageant.
Lisa Schluttenhofer, 20, of Thornton, Ind., is serving as the 2010 American Honey Queen and will be visiting West Virginia from Aug. 25 to 30 to participate in the Honey Festival. During her festival appearance, she will be speaking about how honeybee pollination creates the building blocks of the food supply and will share information about many uses for honey.
Schluttenhofer is a sophomore at Purdue University, where she is majoring in natural resources and environmental science. At Purdue, she is active in the College of Agriculture Dean's Scholars Program and activities at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. She has been a beekeeper for eight years.
As the 2010 American Honey Queen, Schluttenhofer serves as a national spokesperson on behalf of the American Beekeeping Federation, a trade organization representing beekeepers and honey producers throughout the U.S. She previously served as 2009 Indiana Honey Queen.
More information about this year's festival is available online at www.wvhoneyfestival.org
