West Virginia Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival

We have been try­ing to save gas and money by avoid­ing all the won­der­ful fall fes­ti­vals, but we slipped up when we saw that The Seldom Scene would be play­ing at the West Virginia Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival. The slip up reminded us that attend­ing these fes­ti­vals is worth all the time, money, and energy expended. Watching my kids frolic to blue­grass music on a beau­ti­ful day was priceless.

The drive out there was beau­ti­ful (even though we fell off our Google map and landed in a run down neigh­bor­hood of mobile homes some­where north of Ranson, WV) as is any drive into north­west­ern Loudoun and beyond this time of year. We arrived to plenty of park­ing, well shaded tents (they were ready for rain), and a steady stream of music waft­ing over the fair. The ven­dors were friendly and patient with our kids.

This Festival hap­pens every spring and fall, so even though the most recent round is over you will have a chance to visit next time. Watch their web­site (which seems to be act­ing up as of 12/08) for 2009 dates.

Logistic info for you

• If you want to bring a stroller I’d rec­om­mend a jog­ging or off road stroller, since you’ll likely have mud to deal with.
• There are pot­ties all over the fair and they were still pretty clean at clos­ing on day 2 of this 3 day event. There was a hand wash sta­tion near the peanut roast­ing tent not far from the stage.
• There is an old-school play­ground on site, behind the sher­iff area. They have swings, a slide, a spi­der web climb­ing thing, and a roundabout.
• $6 for adults, FREE for kids under 6. You can print a coupon from their web­site and save $1. We dropped $26 ($12 entry, $5 ice cream plus tip for a good cause, $5 cus­tom painted wooden top that my hus­band felt oblig­ated to buy after the artist let my daugh­ter help make one, $4 half-peck of apples). Lots of the ven­dors take credit cards and there is an ATM on site.

Some of our favorite ven­dors included:

TeePees from Rattlesnake Crossing
Linda Vinton and Ken Tillman
TeePees2@aol.com
(302) 588‑2644
I wish I had a link or a pic­ture for you… but I don’t. My kids loved check­ing these out. After much delib­er­at­ing I promised them one as soon as we have space… you would think they’d be more eager to donate or sell their exist­ing toys, but I guess they are still too young to keep that con­nec­tion in the front of their busy lit­tle brains.

Hand Crafted Pens of Distinction
Classic Creations by Don Wood
My son was enthralled by Don Wood’s work and spent a few days after the fair look­ing for the per­fect piece of wood to have made into a pen for some­one spe­cial. We mailed the wood to Don’s work­shop and about 10 days later that spe­cial pen arrived in our mail­box. Everyone we have told about the pen wants to know if Wood is really Don’s last name…

Tagged as: fall festivals nova, mountain art and craft, tristate events, west virginia, West Virginia Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festiva, wv craft