What do hot peppers, pumpkins and live music have in common? They’re all going to be featured in festivals and events over the next couple of months in Granville County, and Tourism Director Angela Allen shared all the details on Tuesday’s TownTalk.

Main Street in downtown Oxford transforms into a music venue on Friday, Aug. 9. Soule and the Super Band will perform from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Bring a lawn chair, get comfy and enjoy the tunes.

A couple of weekends after that, music lovers can head over to the Armory at the corner of MLK Jr. Avenue and Spring Street for the inaugural Next Door Music Festival on Saturday, Aug. 17.

The festival will take place outside on the grounds of the Armory, Allen said. and will feature six bands performing from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Allen said the music festival gained traction after several local business people were tossing ideas around, and the next thing she knew, the idea became a reality. There will be more than a dozen vendors on site with collectibles, toys and games available on festival day. And, she explained, festival proceeds will go to a local charity.

It’s not too early to mark your calendars for Saturday, Sept. 21, either. That’s the day the annual Creedmoor Music Festival is scheduled to take over downtown Creedmoor, providing lots of music genres from gospel to country and everything in between.

And any time is a good time to visit Cedar Creek Gallery outside Creedmoor, Allen said. The gallery is open seven days a week, and on Aug. 23, visitors will get to see the gallery’s 2024 crop of glass pumpkins, created by local glassblowers. Lisa Oakley’ is set to unveil her limited-edition pumpkin that weekend, as well.

There will be glassblowing demonstrations going on outside, and hundreds of pumpkins ready for purchase in the front room of the gallery through Oct. 31.

Destinations like Cedar Creek Gallery have long drawn visitors from outside Granville County, and Allen said she is pleased to see a similar trend at other events that have taken root over the years throughout the county.

“Thirty or forty percent of the crowd may not even be from Granville County,” she said. She’s delighted to see more people that she doesn’t know at festivals, concerts or retail establishments because it means that more folks are coming from farther away.

Take the annual Hot Sauce Festival, for example.

“It’s the coolest thing that’s SO hot in Granville County,” Allen said. And this year, the festival will span two days – Friday, Sept. 6 and Saturday, Sept. 7. AND, Allen said, organizers have added a salsa category to the competition.

But that’s not the only new addition. The Friday events run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will feature glow-in-the-dark putt-putt, vendors and music as a lead-in to the daylong Saturday activities – which this year will stretch from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Kids can enjoy a rock-climbing wall, carnival rides and games in the Fiery Fun Zone, she said.

Adventurous souls can sample all the pepper-inspired tastes, from craft beer to ice cream.

Allen won’t be participating in the popular pepper eating contest, “but I’m brave enough to watch it,” she quipped.

Hot sauce enthusiasts from all over show up for the festival, she said.

“This is the hot spot,” she said.

Visit www.visitgranvillenc.com to learn about all the upcoming events throughout the county.

(This is not a paid ad, but Granville Tourism does advertise on WIZS.com.)