10th annual folk festival rocks Lexington

LEXINGTON, Tenn. — Saturday’s nice weather attracted hundreds to the annual folk festival at its new location in Lexington.

“If you’ve never been you will enjoy it, I guarantee you,” says Lexington resident Linda Ross.

“And when it’s pretty it’s better to be outside, than it is to be in the house cooped up like chickens,” says participant Terry Graves. “You can do that in the winter time.”

Saturday morning the Lexington community took at trip to Beech Lake for the 10th annual Henderson County Folk Festival.

“We have live blue grass and folk music, country music,” says event organizer, Lanny Culver. “We have arts and crafts vendors and we also have a car show.”

This free event featured local musical talent and handcrafted goods from jewelry to jams.

“It’s a great way of entertainment, good way to get out of the house—you meet friendly people and it’s just good all the way around, good for the city,” Ross says.

About 50 car owners came to show off their unique rides. Although there are trophies for best in show, everyone will go home with a prize.

“When people go to the car show they think they have the best vehicle there,” says car show organizer Tom Ayers. “So I feel like if a person puts the effort to come to a car show they should get something.”

The folk festival is the biggest fundraising event for the Lexington American Legion. By selling food and accepting donations, the organization is able to fund service projects that benefit veterans in the community.

“It just enables us to be able to do all those kinds of things and help people where and when we can,” Culver says.

Event organizers estimate about a thousand people made it out to this year’s folk festival.

“These events, you can come to them, you ain’t got to do nothing but walk around if you want to,” says Graves. “You can be poor and still have a good time.”