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Gear Up for the Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks

By Michelle Strubeck The Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks will take place on October 1st and 2nd at the Foxtrotters Showgrounds.  Nina Carter,  President of the festival said the mission of the two day gathering is centered around preserving traditional Ozarks culture and skills, acknowledge local artisans, and build new community relations. Exhibitors are asked to display and demonstrate their skills, such as candle making, soap making, canning and preservation, broom making, pottery, fabric artists, wool products and more. There will also be local acoustic bands performing. There is a youth talent show, giving young musicians the opportunity to get on stage, demonstrate their talent and learn what it means to perform. Nina also mentioned with more people developing an interest in living off the grid, this gives them an opportunity to see what skills are needed and they can learn how to further develop those skills.

     An event like this couldn’t succeed without the help of volunteers. Volunteers are needed to help guide traffic, set up and take down for the event and just have everyone get their hands involved. Nina stated this gives people in the community a chance to learn who they are and it takes interest from the public in order to make events such as the Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks a success.

     Nina went on to say that the Economic Development Committee is looking for ways to build the economy through tourism. Discover the Ozarks, which is a sister program to the Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks, is geared around city history and the old railroad. Nina said they want to build tourism without destroying the DNA of the area, such as the logging and cattle industry. They like new business and want everything to blend together without taking away from what we have.