By: Medical Leader Staff/Press Release/Other
The Medical Leader / JOSHUA BALL
Shriners from across the nation will invade Pikeville for the annual Hillbilly Days celebration.
PIKEVILLE – The staff of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce is preparing for the annual Hillbilly Days festival, which is slated for April 17-19.
“There is so much work behind the scenes to plan the festival,” said Chamber Office Manager Debbie Clevinger.
For the past 20 years, the Pike County Chamber has worked to organize and improve the festival. With the help of the Shriners and other organizations and volunteers, the festival has continued to grow each year. In 2007, the festival broke all previous records.
More than 100,000 people were in attendance, over 300 vendors participated and $56,000 was donated from vendor rented space.
“I enjoy working to organize Hillbilly Days,” Clevinger added.
“I enjoy it because it not only brings positive publicity to our city and county. It primarily raises money for the Shriners’ hospital.
“We’re all very proud that each year, the funding for the hospital has increased. In 1996, the hospital received $14,000, but with the Shriners and Chamber working together, we are consistently able to give over $50,000. That is a 400 percent increase and that is amazing to me.”
“Although a festival the size of Hillbilly Days truly requires year-round attention, we begin intensely working on each year’s festival in September and then devote most of every workday until mid-April. Even after the last official day of the event, there are still many items to take care of before everything is wrapped up for another year.”
The chamber staff prepares vendor information packets for all those who have previously had spaces. They also answer hundreds of phone calls from prospective vendors and attendees.
The application deadline is December for early registration, so the phones stay busy with calls from those hoping to get a spot at the event.
In January and February, the staff assigns spaces while applications keep rolling in for late registration. In September, they preparing packets and taking phone calls for the event.
They also work the streets of downtown Pikeville, measuring and reevaluating space and to improve efficiency of the event. In November, over 300 vendor application packets are mailed.
Through April, many planning sessions are held with the Pike County Fiscal Court, the city of Pikeville, the Shriners Hillbilly Clan and the Utilities Management Group — all of the organizations that work together to make this event happen.
When festival time rolls around, in-depth planning goes into the detailed organization of the festivities. Volunteers come out on the Monday of Hillbilly Days week to mark streets for vendor placement.
Over 70 volunteers arrive to help place and park the vendors the Wednesday before the event begins. The crew of volunteers setup shop early at the two staging areas to begin signing in vendors and staging them to drive in to town at 5:30 p.m. At that time, the streets of downtown are closed and the parade of vendors is strategically marched in for placement and work until the last vendor is parked.
Each year from September to April, the Chamber works over 2,800 hours in order to create a successful festival. More than 50 chamber members provide more than 70 volunteers from their organizations to help make this a successful event.
“We hope everyone in the community will come out to support Hillbilly Days again this year,” said Chamber CEO Brad Hall.
“We look forward to the festival and hope that everyone attending has a wonderful time.”
The Hillbilly Days festival is just around the corner. Make plans to attend Thursday, April 17 through Saturday, April 19.
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