Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

TownTalk: MerleFest Takes Place April 25 Through 28

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About 100 artists and bands will take to the stage – 12 stages, actually – during the four-day run of MerleFest next month in Wilkes County and organizers anticipate more than 70,000 fans of bluegrass and traditional music will be there to listen and take in all the sights.

Festival Director Wes Whitson said he’d love to see attendance “north of 75,000” and said he and his team work throughout the year to secure acts from far and near to entertain audiences of all ages throughout the four days. MerleFest 2024 takes place on the campus of Wilkes Community College April 25-28.

MerleFest began in 1988 as a fundraiser to help improve the gardens at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, Whitson told WIZS co-host Bill Harris. Legendary musician Doc Watson started the festival in memory of his musician son Merle, who died in 1985.

Since then, the festival has grown and evolved, but Whitson said its roots still lie in being a fundraiser for the community college, providing money for scholarships, training and much more.

Among the acts taking the stage this year are Old Crow Medicine Show, Nickel Creek, Turnpike Troubadours, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Lukas Nelson & POTR, Steep Canyon Rangers – just to name a few.

Visit https://merlefest.org/ for details about ticket prices, lineups, schedules and all things MerleFest. Or, Whitson said, the box office is open on weekdays, so feel free to call 800.343.7857. There’s also a MerleFest app.

From all indications so far, MerleFest fans approve of the musicians they’ll be listening to this year. “Our fans have really shown support for our lineup,” Whitson said. They conducted research will polls to make sure they were choosing artists that fans wanted to hear.

“I think that paid off,” he said, adding that they’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback.

Concert-goers come from all over to the small county in western North Carolina, and they bring their pocketbooks with them. Whitson said MerleFest infuses $10 and $12 million dollars into the local economy during the days leading up to – and including – the festival.

MerleFest’s artist relations team is continually looking and listening for local talent and scout around in local and larger venues all year to identify potential musicians to invite. “We seek and find and invite,” Whitson said. “We’re definitely paying attention and following the ‘buzz’ around.”

In its earlier days, organizers could start making plans in the summer for the following spring’s concert. But those days are over, Whitson said.

“It is a yearlong planning event – we work full time on this all year long…to make sure we’re putting out the best, safest, quality event. That takes a lot of time.”

He gives much credit to his festival team and extended network of partners – from the production company to the tent supplier to artist relations teams, “everybody pitches in and does a great job,” Whitson said.

“I’m surrounded by good people…we love doing it and it’s a lot of fun.”

 

WIZS will be giving away free tickets to MerleFest in the coming weeks – stay tuned for details!

 

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Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Cleanup perennial flower beds. Cut back plants, pull weeds and refresh mulch
  • Finish up your pruning chores. Fruit trees,blueberries,grape vines, broadleaf evergreens and ornamental trees.
  • Increase pollination of your garden by purchasing Honey bees or contacting a beekeeper to place a hive on your property
  • Keep your garden notebook up to date
  • Check vegetable seedlings that you are growing indoors daily, light,soil moisture
  • Plan your spring garden on paper before planting your garden

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TownTalk: Henderson Spectacular Coming To SaddleRock Farm

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The upcoming “Henderson Spectacular” is sure to check a lot of boxes for folks in the community who want to visit a local farm, play games and enjoy the outdoors, but Larry Johnson and Emily Parker are weaving in a religious theme into all the activities that will be taking place on Saturday, Apr. 27.

And they want to spread the word, especially about The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Johnson owns SaddleRock Farm, and he and his granddaughter-in-law were guests on Tuesday’s TownTalk segment to talk up the event, which is completely free for everyone to attend. Gates open at 11 a.m. and the fun continues until 3 p.m. Come early, Johnson advised, so you’ll have a chance to enjoy all the activities that are in store.

“I’m blessed to be a part of it…I’m glad to have it at the farm –  it’s special,” Parker said.

“Our farm furnishes the location,” Johnson said, and New Sandy Creek Baptist Church is a primary sponsor for this year’s “Spectacular,” which will feature horse rides and hayrides, inflatables for the kids to play on, puppet shows and much more.

Then there’s the food – think carnival food like popcorn, sno-cones and drinks to go along with all the outdoor fun – “all for zero cost,” Johnson added.

Kids of all ages can enjoy visiting with some barnyard animals, including goats, sheep, a pig, chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks – even a turkey.

Not to worry, Johnson said, all these animals have names. And you can’t eat them once you give them names, he explained.

The farm is a for-profit endeavor, providing riding lessons, field trips and birthday parties throughout the year. But it’s important to Johnson to give back to the community, and hosting the event is his way of going that.

“When I bought that farm, I didn’t buy it for the public, I bought it for my family. Not too long after that, God spoke to my heart and said he had provided that farm…not just for my family but for other people. So when we opened in April 2010, we had a pretty big dedication service and we dedicated that farm to the Lord and his work. We do have to make a living – the farm does have to support itself, but it is dedicated to the Lord and every opportunity we have to provide any service that people can learn more about the Lord, we do that.”

SaddleRock Farm is located at 1786 Weldon’s Mill Rd., Henderson.

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TownTalk: VGCC Celebrates 40 Years Of Golf

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Calling all golfers! Make plans to play a round of golf, celebrate 40 years of teeing it up for Vance-Granville Community College and help students, all at once.

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the VGCC tournament, and Sheri Jones, associate director for the VGCC Foundation said there are plenty of opportunities to support the fundraiser even if you’ve never swung a club.

“It’s a big anniversary for us,” Jones said Tuesday on TownTalk. This year’s two-day event takes place at Henderson Country Club on Monday, May 6 and Tuesday, May 7. Register four-member teams for $560 or register individually for $150.

Sponsor details can be found at www.vgcc.edu/golf, Jones said. The VGCC Foundation is still looking for a presenting sponsor; all sponsorships greatly help defray costs associated with the group’s main fundraiser.

“If we don’t have the funds – a lot of our scholarships have certain criteria they have to meet,” Jones said, and some students simply don’t meet the criteria. Proceeds from the golf tournament go toward funding needs-based scholarships for students, which “fill those gaps where students may not qualify for the other scholarship we have,” she explained.

Previous tournaments have raised between $20,000 and $40,000, depending on the number of players and the number of sponsors.

Call The VGCC Foundation at 252.738.3264 or email foundation@vgcc.edu to learn more.

Jones said planning the tournament is a lot of work, but it’s well worth it.

“It’s a pleasure to do the work because we know the good result that it has for the college and for the students and therefore, for the community as a whole.”

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Upcoming Events At Perry Memorial Library

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How is a librarian like a fisherman?

Well, if you ask Perry Library’s Youth Services Director Melody Peters, she might just liken her job of creating programs for young people like a fisherman casting a net into the ocean – you just never know how big the haul is going to be.

Some programs, Peters said, yield a lot of participants and others are a tad slower to catch on. “You just have to keep casting a net of programs,” she said, and eventually you’ll catch something.

In addition to staple programs like Survivor Hacks, Peters said she’s excited about a program on Monday, Apr. 8 to witness the solar eclipse.

“We’re supposed to have a decent shot at visibility,” she told WIZS co-host Bill Harris. The program will be from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m., with ideal conditions around 2:30 p.m., she predicted. The library has special glasses for viewing. No registration is necessary – just show up and enjoy! There will be activities in the Farm Bureau Room to go along with the actual eclipse viewing.

The next day, Tuesday, Apr. 9, teens can come back to the library at 4 p.m. for a program called “Black Out poetry,” which involves using books that have been removed from the library shelves because they’re damaged or in such disrepair they can’t be sold at library book sales.

The way it works is this: kids become poets by blacking out words in a sentence to leave the one word or phrase that will ultimately be part of a poem.

“It’s kind of cool to see what you can create by blacking out words in sentences,” she said.

She hopes that some of the participants will share during a read-aloud session when they’re done.

And then at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 21 bring the family for a book sale and tea party to celebrate National Tea Day. Around the World Tea Day is another way to create programming for busy families who may be available during the weekend, especially Sundays.

It’s a way to support the Friends of the Library book sales and provide activities for families to  enjoy the library.

Visit https://www.perrylibrary.org/ to learn more.

 

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Cooperative Extension With Paul McKenzie: What Works in the Garden

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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TownTalk: Police Chief Concerned With Litter Problem

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Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow wants the public to be on the lookout for…signs in their neighborhoods that are part of an anti-litter campaign.

The signs will feature brightly colored handprints – about the size of a child’s hand – and will include a QR code that is linked directly to Crime Stoppers, so the public can report instances of littering by pointing their cell phone at the code.

Barrow told WIZS Monday on TownTalk that the campaign is as much about education and prevention as it is about catching litterbugs.

With a modest $6,000 budget from a federal asset forfeiture funds allocation, Barrow said he plans to target elementary school-aged children across the city to impress upon them the importance of keeping litter off the streets.

“It’s going to be an inclusive campaign,” Barrow said, adding that there will be ways to tie in with businesses, pastors and churches and individuals. “We’re just going to try to throw the kitchen sink at this thing,” he said.

City Manager Terrell Blackmon helped get quarterly cleanups started when he came on board, which complements the state’s annual Litter Sweep campaign, which this year is April 26.

Barrow said he still recalls those catchy phrases he learned when he was in elementary school, and they’ve stuck with him – “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires,” and “Give a Hoot – Don’t Pollute,” to name a few.

This campaign’s catch phrases aimed at schoolchildren can have a similar lasting effect on today’s young people – “Don’t Trash Our Future” and “Children Deserve a Clean Community” bring home the message to put trash in its place.

There’s even talk of having stickers that fast-food restaurants will put on their bags that will contain the anti-litter messaging, Barrow said, “to put it in as many faces as we can to prevent (littering) instead of taking punitive measures.”

More information about the upcoming campaign should be available in the next couple of weeks.