BLUEFIELD, W. Va. -This year’s lemonade festival brought back many of things the community has come to expect from this annual tradition, such as live music, around 35 vendors, two bounce houses, and, of course, lemonade.
This year’s festival attracted some newcomers, including the winners of the lemon pie eating contest and the lemon eating contest.
“This is my first time down here to the festival, so I thought, what better way to celebrate than to just get a face full of pie,” says Logan Browning, the lemon pie eating contest champion.
“It’s a bit bitter but it’s also sweet because I won a gift card to The RailYard, so that was nice,” says Ben Pauley, the lemon eating contest champion, who ate 12 lemon slices.
But Browning and Pauley weren’t the only new additions to the festivities. This year, they had a new location: the Bluefield City Park. Cecil Marson, Bluefield’s City Manager says the new location has been a great change for the festival, with people enjoying the Ridge Runner train and the new playground.
“… a lot of folks like to come down here. We got the great playground, we got the train going today, the bouncy houses, tons of really super vendors and great people and a great band playing in the background, so we’re just super happy and I think that people enjoy getting out here in the park…” says Marson.
Another returning attraction was the trolley tour, which taught guests about historical buildings to be found in Bluefield and the people who once lived there. We spoke to Wayne Pelts, a tour guide for the returning trolley tour, who says the change in location didn’t sour the turnout for Lemonade Days.
“Oh my goodness, what a great crowd. I mean, I don’t know if anyone expected this place to be as busy today as it is, but people love Bluefield, Beaver-Graham weekend, Lemonade Day is almost like homecoming for a lot of people, so shoutout to the City for the great job that they’ve done,” says Pelts
Everyone we spoke to says this year’s Lemonade Festival is a success, with plenty to see and do. Marson says, while lemonade might be in the name, this festival is really a celebration of the traditions that unite the community together. He gives credit to his assistant for her work organizing this and for all the vendors who took part.
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