Bath County tourism, event plans moving ahead

Hot Springs, Va. – In Bath County, efforts to promote tourism are moving ahead this summer and fall, with festivals and more. A welcome center blitz, a new walking tour brochure and festival planning are keeping Bath’s Director of Tourism, Maggie Anderson, busy.

“We would like to invite everyone to stop by the Welcome Center on Interstate 64 as you enter in from the West Virginia side,” says Anderson. “Virginia Tourism Corporation is allowing us to do what’s called a blitz, to rent the welcome center for the month. We will be doing and brining all things Bath to the visitors’ center. We invite you to stop by, see the displays, learn a little bit more about what’s here in Bath County that you may not be aware of and just support our efforts. We are really excited. This is going to bring a whole new awareness of Bath County to folks who are traveling through the area, starting in West Virginia and heading on down.”

And hot off the presses is a brand new brochure featuring a historic walking tour of downtown Hot Springs. The brochure is a joint effort between the Office of Tourism and the Historical Society. Copies are available at the Chamber of Commerce. And coming up on Saturday August fourth is the Wings and Wheels Festival.

“We have some of our perennial favorites with our acrobatic performers, air performers,” says Anderson. “We’ve got the cars, we’ve got vendors. And we have flying lawnmowers. You’ve got to see it. There’ll be food music and vendors all day, 8 to 6. Please join us, up on the mountain, Ingalls Field.”

And the second annual Harvest Moon Festival is Saturday September 22. As part of the festival, the century and metric bike rides will be held again and this year there’s also a fun ride. The bike rides will leave from Millboro elementary school.

“We want to remind everyone this is the festival where we are decorating our hay bales, so begin getting creative,” says Anderson. “We are going to be adding a lot of categories for award winning creations. We will have the traditional closing of the farmers market in downtown Hot Springs. The day will be filled with music, food, vendors of all kinds.”

As part of Harvest Moon, Bath Animal Welfare will be holding a fundraiser auction and that night there will be a free concert at Garth Newel Music Center featuring country and bluegrass singer Linda Lay.

“We are going to be hosting for the very first time this year a cooking competition,” says Anderson. “We will be looking for a variety of apple and pumpkin recipes, whether they be desserts or stews. The idea will be not only to win that blue ribbon, but to be part of the new Bath County cookbook that we hope to produce as a result of the event. Coming soon will be information about the photo contest that we are going to be hosting. Begin taking pictures now. We’re going to be looking for pictures of attractions and nature and people enjoying themselves in Bath County. Pictures will be judged, there will be cash prizes and all pictures will go on the Bath County website and will be used in Bath County advertisements and commercials.”

For more information about any of these events contact Bath’s Director of Tourism, Maggie Anderson, at 540-839-7202.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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