If you can think of a mountain craft the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair is the place to find fine specimens.  Booths were filled to overflowing with hand woven baskets, carved and turned bowls, cutting boards and kitchen widgets, woven, knit and crocheted items of home spun yarn, quilts, pottery of every shape and size, brooms, jewelry, local foodstuffs and wine and lots more.  I spent hours and miles wandering tent to tent.

It was a bit of a disappointment for Kent.  As he recalls it from 40 years ago or so there was a lot more hands on demonstration and a pride in sharing their craft rather than the focus on sales that we found today.  They seem to have centralized the artisan side of the effort into an area where one can sign up for workshops to try their hand at various crafts.  It is probably a more practical approach but more purposeful and requires too much pre-planning for casual attendees like us.  The other big disappointment; no homemade ice cream at the FFA booth…they always had it.  The food court is now mostly commercial/fair venders rather than local non-profits like school groups, clubs and churches.  Things change.

A civil war re-enactment group included canon and musket firings and a great old time music group,

The Tower Street String Band.  Double Bass, banjo, fiddle and guitar combined for fun entertainment.  Weather turned threatening and we skipped out before the barn dance scheduled for that evening.  I am sure it was a fun time for all.