The Kentucky National Guard’s 202nd Army band entertains the crowd in Carlisle on the second night of the town’s Blackberry Festival.
Festival goers line up in chairs down Main Street as the band plays. Jerry Johnson is an administrator with the Carlisle-Nicholas County Chamber of Commerce. He said the Blackberry Festival started 79 years ago as a homecoming for soldiers.
“This festival started in 1946. Yeah, it was a homecoming. The soldiers were coming back from World War II and they were planning this while coming back. And then it became a homecoming and then melded into the BlackBerry Festival," explained Johnson.
One of the co-organizers is eighty-one-year-old Gladys Shrout. She wears a lavender cowgirl hat and matching t-shirt that reads Blackberry Festival and Life is Sweeter in a Small Town. Shrout’s been attending the festival on Carlisle’s Courthouse Square since she was a little girl. The energetic Shrout tells what she loves about the five-day event.
“The people, I love seeing the people, see people I haven’t seen for years, and I love that. And I love the carnival that’s in the courthouse yard. And I love our steak sandwiches and our baked potatoes. One of them weighed two and a half pounds,” said Shrout.
Shrout said years back, when blackberries were in season, people would walk up the street with buckets of blackberries for sale. Seasons have changed, said Shrout, but the blackberry theme lives on.
”There’s blackberry cobbler with ice cream, blackberry slushies, blackberry lemonade, blackberry ice cream, blackberry funnel cake. It’s just blackberries,” reported Shrout.
“Hey, I’ll take a blackberry cobbler,” said Daniel May.
May moved to Carlisle a year ago and said this is his first time attending the Blackberry Festival. He poses for a picture of his first bite of homemade blackberry cobbler.
Very good. Thank you. I might be back for more later on,” said May.
Laurie Kudroff is all smiles as she helps serve extra-large baked potatoes from the tourism booth. She’s visiting from Southern California.
“My sister and brother-in-law have lived in Carlisle. My brother-in-law grew up here, and they’ve been married 47 years. And I’ve always missed it by a day or a week or a month, and this year, after 47 years of coming to Carlisle, Kentucky, I’m at the Blackberry Festival, and I’m so excited,” said Kudroff.
Food and fundraising are two of the mainstays on Main Street during this festival. Several brightly colored rides, including a Ferris wheel, Tilt-A-Whirl, flying scooters, and a merry-go-round, light up the courthouse square. John Hutchison waves to his grandson as he circles by on the merry-go-round. Hutchison said he lives right over the hill from the courthouse and has enjoyed this tradition for 40 years.
” It’s just like a big family reunion. You see people you haven’t seen all year, maybe. This may be the only time you see them. It just brings back memories when I was a kid. And parents going out and picking blackberries and jams and jellies. That’s what it brings to mind,” said Hutchison.
Sitting on the courthouse steps, Melanie Turner is with her friend Debbie Jackson. They relax and enjoy steak sandwiches and blackberry lemonade.
“We just like to come for the small-town fun of it all,” said Turner.
About 1500 people show up each night for the festival, according to Jim Galbraith. Galbraith refers to himself as a festival helper and said it’s a big deal for this little town that only has 4 stoplights. Everything from the food vendors to the rides, to the parade, to the crowning of the Blackberry Queen is all part of the annual event. But Galbraith said that on this night, having the 202nd Army Band play is extra special to him.
“Me being a veteran of 30-plus years. I think it’s an honor for them to come to such a small town,” said Galbraith.
Thirty-five band members entertain the crowd. Sergeant Cody Williams grew up in Carlisle. He plays the euphonium with the Army Band and has a solo tonight.
“I grew up in a small community, and I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to go hear really professional-level musicians playing. So, to be part of the group that’s coming back to provide that is something special for me,” said Williams.
Eighty-seven-year-old Jock Conley is a veteran. He said he came with his wife, Sue, specifically to hear the Army Band.
“It’s kind of an unusual event at the Blackberry Festival. And I want to hear them. It was a long time ago when I was in the Army,” said Conley.
As the Kentucky National Guard’s 202nd Army Band wraps up its concert, the crowd stands and cheers some with their hands over their hearts.
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