By the time this column is put to bed and placed in subscribers’ homes and at various open sales kiosks, the Ayden Collard Festival will be in the process of celebrating its 50th event. In fact, as you read today’s paper, the festival will offer a full day of entertainment for the family. I would urge you to pack up the family and take off to Ayden as you read this very first paragraph.
For years I never missed a Collard Festival, from its inception in 1975 until my retirement from the newspaper business in 2010. For 35 years it was my job to report on the event. That not only included verbiage but also required me to take many, many photographs. Back then I walked the street during the parade — and sometimes I would run down the street when I thought I’d missed a great photo shot of a parade entry.
I was honored in 1983 to have been chairman of the festival. Jessica Dennis Edwards leads the event this year and I’m certain she will tell you there is a lot of work that has to be done, and it requires quite a commitment. Back in 1983 it required monthly meetings beginning in January through the aftermath of the event in October. I recall during my tenure that it required meeting weekly with selected committee chairs during the full month of August just to make sure everything was in place.
When the festival concluded, I personally felt a sense of relief … that a load was lifted off my shoulders. Yet, there was also a sense of pride of having accomplished something that impacted thousands of people. When you saw children and adults smiling, it was easy to see how all the hard work was worth the effort.
I saw plenty of smiles during the 1983 festival and I’m willing to bet (if I were a betting man) you will see lots of smiles today at Ayden’s 50th event. Don’t miss it.
Here is a synopsis of today’s schedule that I hope will pique your interest to the point that you’ll stop what you’re doing and travel to Ayden to have some fun.
The festival’s last day offers many of the attractive events. There’s a horseshoe tournament that begins registration at 9 a.m. at Veteran’s Park on Third Street with the tournament itself starting at 10 a.m.
Arts and crafts will be on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Art Show, staged all week at the Community Building on Second Street, will be open from noon until 6 p.m. Admission is free. The Art Show is a thing of beauty so don’t miss it.
The Annual Parade begins at 10 a.m. and is set to conclude at 11:30 p.m. The parade lines up at Ayden Middle and Ayden Elementary Schools before proceeding east down Third Street to downtown Ayden. The parade turns on West Avenue in front of the downtown stage and proceeds north where it makes a left turn onto Second Street, then proceeds back to the schools via Jolly Road. The parade is generally the highlight of the morning activities.
Rides open for business on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and at the same time, Journonya’s Line Dance Crew will begin performing on the West Avenue stage until noon. There will be clown appearances and Imagine Circus aerial performances throughout the afternoon and an Imagine Circus stilt walker and roving juggler.
The Collard Eating Contest will begin on stage from 2-3 p.m. It is always an exciting event, involving both men and women contestants. Who will walk off with the men and women titles in 2024?
In the mid-afternoon time slot is Raices Mexicanas: Mexican Roots and the karate group Carolina H.E.A.T. at the West Avenue stage.
Performing on stage from 5-7 p.m. will be Leave(99). Imagine Circus fire performers will conclude the festival entertainment from 8-10 p.m.
The featured band from 7-10 p.m. will be Captain Mike & the Shipwrecked, a premier Jimmy Buffett tribute band.
The Ayden Collard Festival was founded because Willis Manning, a local Ayden businessman and president of the Ayden Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter to the editor of the Ayden News-Leader seeking ideas for a festival. As an afterthought he added a postscript, challenging Mrs. Lois Theuring to head up a Collard Festival, knowing full well that she hated collards. A week later, Mrs. Theuring submitted her own letter to the editor agreeing to head up a Collard Festival if Manning would co-chair it with her. There is a little more to the story, but it is safe to say that both Manning and Theuring are the founders of the Ayden Collard Festival.
Manning died in Abingdon, Virginia, on Dec. 6, 2016. He was 66. He had two daughters. Theuring, who moved back to her native Ohio, died in Milford, Ohio, on Jan. 19, 2024. She was 92 and the mother of 11 children.
Both Manning and Theuring were outstanding people, and each left quite a legacy in the small town of Ayden with a population of just 5,000 people. May their names remain attached to the Ayden Collard Festival for another 50 years or 100 years or more.
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