Downtown Lancaster is buzzing with activity this weekend. An annual festival recognizes what was once the primary economic driver in the farm community.
For more than 40 years, Garrard County has been the site of a tobacco festival. Gone are the tobacco cutting and spitting contests, but all kinds of activities can still be found at the Rural Heritage Tobacco, Festival. Festival Vice Chair Wanda Shelton says this year may be a record-breaker.
“This is our biggest festival ever, I do believe. Cause I don’t remember us…we never shut 52 down. We used to have vendors that went down the side but not in the center,” said Shelton.
Shelton said the name of the festival was altered briefly.
“Course when we added rural heritage or we changed it one time, that was because so many people were against tobacco, but it was so much of our history that we added it back in. It’s our history and that’s what everybody around here calls it. They will not call it rural heritage,” said Shelton.
Included in the weekend activities are a talent show, wrestling, a ventriloquist, a carnival, a parade, inflatables, slides, lots of music, and food vendors. The Garrard County festival runs through Saturday night.
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