Despite last week’s reports, the Sorghum in the Mountains Festival will, in fact, be offering branded merchandise for sale, including T-shirts and wristbands. At a festival meeting on Sept. 11, the shirt designs were unveiled and feature a new pastoral logo befitting of the festival.
Additionally, Commissioner Harold Collins wanted to clarify the circumstances surrounding the construction of the new concession stand and stage in Meeks Park. Chamber of Commerce President Steve Rowe said the structures were a necessity based on safety concerns, and Collins offered another insight when he revealed that the previous festival organizers took many of the supplies utilized in sorghum syrup production.
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“We basically had to start from scratch,” Collins said, noting they have had to purchase and re-do another cooking pan, install a gas tank and plumbing, and come up with boxes to collect the finished syrup for canning, with additional purchases including the stage, concession stand, a tractor to pull the mill, and “other odds and ends.”
“We’ve had to go through all that and gather all this stuff up to make this happen. That’s what we’ve been through,” said Collins. “All they left was the furnace and the chimney and the building.”
Still, Collins was adamant that he did not want to throw anybody “under the bus” but inform the public about what went into ensuring that the Sorghum Festival – albeit under a different brand – returned again this year.
Collins said one of the biggest goals of this year’s festival is to make back all of the costs that went into replacing the equipment and organizing the event. If they don’t, the funds will have to be pulled out of the Hotel-Motel Tax.
“It’s going to be a lot nicer,” Collins said of Sorghum in the Mountains, adding that his office hopes to hold more events out in the lower field in the future to make use of the new equipment.
The Sorghum in the Mountains Festival will run the second and third weekends in October: Oct. 11 & 12, and Oct. 18 & 19.
