16th annual Alpaca Farm Festival draws hundreds of families to Preston

PRESTON — Hundreds of families flocked to the Alpaca Farm Festival on Sept. 21 and 22.

This is the 16th year visitors have gathered to meet the 42 alpacas on the Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm. Attendees spent lots of time reaching over the fence trying to pet one. Some were successful.

The crowd had perfect fall weather as the band Silhouette Song played everything from Patsy Cline, to Bruce Springsteen, to vintage Rolling Stones. There was fresh–squeezed lemonade, cake pops and cheese burgers to be had. There were three wool spinners from Delaware actively creating yarn and educating passersby about the difference between ultra warm alpaca wool and sheep’s wool.

The pedal–powered spinning wheels were turning alpaca and sheep wool into yarn. The spinners had skeins of wool in baskets at their feet. Spinning is very meditative, they said.

“It is relaxing, and I can design exactly the yarn that I need for my knitting project. Sometimes I spin with a general idea like this is going to be a shawl. I have six fleeces from this farm that I need to spin up. So there is a lot of alpaca being used in the coming year,” Tammy Garland said.

The spinners like alpaca wool as it is very warm. Alpacas come from the mountains.

These creatures are camelid mammals from Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador. They are bred for their wool, whereas bigger llamas are bred to be pack animals.

Phil Liske, owner of the Outstanding Dreams Alpaca Farm, said, “Alpacas are a strictly domesticated species just like cows. We have been breeding them since 16 years ago. They are very much like horses. Almost always a single birth.”

His wife Vickie Liske says it was his idea to get alpacas, which seemed strange to her at first.

“I didn’t want anything that was biting and kicking. It didn’t take long before I loved them as much as he did,” Vickie said.

The idea for the annual festival came about because the Liskes wanted to share the love of these animals with the community.

“The first time we did it we expected 50 or 70 people. 750 showed up. The interest was amazing,” he said.

It started with just the animals, but as the years went by they added a bounce house and ice cream and vendors and live music.

“I think we have over 20 craft vendors now. There are pony rides. It is a really nice family event. We have the ice cream truck and snow cones. It is not just for kids, but there is a ton of stuff for kids,” Phil Liske said.

“It is fun. It has just about everything that little kids like,” Vickie said.