14th Annual Little Levels Heritage Fair June 24th Through The 26th In Hillsboro

Hillsboro, WV – If you want information about the Little Levels Heritage Fair, you need look no further than the Little Levels expert Ruth Taylor. She is the organizer of the fair and tells the history of how the Fair got started.

“I had the idea to have a Fair in Hillsboro” says Taylor, “and it’s a fair not a festival. I was chatting with Louise McNeal, and Opal Moore and Wilda Chapple, and they said do it [as] heritage and keep it local, keep it community. We decided to have it the last weekend in June to coincide with Pearl Buck’s Birthday celebration to kind of boost attendance and we set our charter and everything to make it, so that we have everything as heritage.”

Taylor says they have a full slate of activities for all ages and all done in the traditional fashion.

“We didn’t bring in a lot of big bands in the Heritage days and we didn’t have majorettes and just little things like that that just don’t fit what we did” she says. “There’s always somebody who has an idea to do something modern. And of course we have to have the philosophy that they need to do that at a different fair if they want to do the more modern things, the carnival stuff because they don’t really fit our heritage.”

Taylor says that things will get started in earnest on Friday evening.

“The arts and crafts open at 4, we’re gonna start serving the BBQ at 5, and they’re cooking that outdoors over an open grill” she says. “Cody Burns and JJ Riley are gonna perform there about 5 o’clock and then the fireman’s parade will be at 8. And then following the fireman’s parade which will be about 8:15, Christine Campbell’s band River Rock is going to play.”

Taylor says there will be load of entertainment, with Saturday being the focal point of the weekend. Among the groups scheduled to perform are Juanita Fireball and the Continental Drifters, the Spring Hollow Cloggers, and country favorites Richard Hefner & The Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys.

“And then Saturday also there’s going to be some new things, there’s suppose to be a black powder camp at Pearl Buck, we’re going to line up the parade there” says Taylor. “The parade is usually short because there’s no way to get through Hillsboro except Rt 219 and there’s no where to have a parade that doesn’t tie up 219. The parade marshal this year is going to be the Hefner Family and they’re going to be singing as they go through, Our theme is Traditions in Music and we’re doing a focus on the Hefner Family.”

Taylor says they’ll wrap things up with a Memorial Service Sunday evening.

“At 8:15 we’re having the Vespers, hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can have it on top of the hill at the McNeel Cemetery” says Taylor. “And the theme is Will the Circle be Unbroken. It’s a tribute to Dude Irvin who was the Uncle of all the Hefner children and he was severely handicapped and he taught them all how to play music; so that’s a tribute to him.”

Not resting on their laurels, Taylor says they’re already planning for next year as well as 2013.

“Next year our theme is going to be Digging Up History” she says. “Anybody that’s got stories to share of old times, Civil War History or anything like that of this area, we’d like for them to start writing them and we hope to have a book to publish by 2013. And then the next thing we want to start for 2012 because we want to do a photo contest.”

“And that will be old photos both amateur and professional, of people, events and places in the Little Levels and then things of the modern day for the same categories. So if people want to start taking their photos, or maybe take some at the Heritage Fair, this would be a good time to let them know that that’s going to be happening and they can get started.”

Be sure to tune in Saturday morning starting at 10am for a live broadcast from Little Levels on your Allegheny Mountain Radio stations.