Celebrate History, Music And Community At The Second Annual Old Dairy Heritage Festival In Bath County October 7-9

Warm Springs, Va – Celebrate history, music and community at the second annual Old Dairy Heritage Festival in Bath County this weekend. The Festival’s variety of activities offer you the chance to learn about American history, research your own family’s history and kick up your heels at a dance.

The Festival gets underway on Friday night at 7 in Trimble Hall at the Old Dairy in Warm Springs. Historian and author Jon Kukla will do a presentation on the 18th century contest of wills between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Mary Hodges, Executive Director of the Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust, organized the festival.

“Kukla’s talk on Friday night is really coming out of a book that he has tentatively titled Mr. Henry’s Revolution,” says Hodges. “And this is a major project for him right now and it is reexaming the founding era and the players that were involved in that. We’re lucky to have him before the actual book is released.”

There’s a full day of things to do on Saturday.

“The Nature Conservancy is sponsoring a hike at 9am, there’s an antique quilt collection that will hang in Trimble Hall,” says Hodges. “Sandy Farrell, who is an Archivist with the Library of Virginia, will be in Trimble Hall from 10 o’clock to 3 to answer people’s questions about family history and genealogy. And then Garth Newel is sponsoring a roots music concert at 5 and then there’s a dinner after that if you choose.”

And on Saturday night Garth Newel Music Center is holding a dance at 8 o’clock. Hodges says the dance will be very much like a square dance. You can attend all three events at Garth Newel, the concert, dinner and the dance at a discounted rate. Or you can attend just the concert, the concert with dinner or just the dance. Contact Garth Newel for ticket information. The dance is pay at the door and admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages six to twelve.

The Old Dairy Heritage Festival wraps up at The Homestead for a history tour on Sunday at 2pm. The Homestead has recently completed a history room, which will be part of the tour along with a short film and a walk around some of the property.

“I just think it’s a great way to celebrate our history, our culture, our roots here in Bath County,” says Hodges. “And the very fact that most of these activities are free is a wonderful thing for our residents and visitors to the area. This whole event is co-sponsored and the people that are helping me put this on are The Nature Conservancy, The Homestead Hotel, Bath County Historical Society, Garth Newel and of course, Virginia Hot Springs Preservation Trust.”

If you want to attend The Nature Conservancy Hike on Saturday morning or The Homestead history tour on Sunday afternoon, please make reservations in advance, by contacting Mary Hodges at the Old Dairy at 540-839-2407.