Archive for ◊ July, 2021 ◊

The Clarksville Lake Country Chamber of Commerce board of directors is excited to host a whole new event this year. Buggs Island/Kerr Lake is home to the world’s largest Blue Catfish back in June of 2011 weighing 143 pounds! The Clarksville Chamber board discussed highlighting this and art so we started earlier this year seeking a mascot for an art crawl idea. This contest was open to the public and the winner won $500 which was sponsored by Karin Kuhn of Coldwell Banker Advantage. Once our mascot was chosen we had a contest to name him and the winner won $250 sponsored by the Galleria, and the winning name was…Clark and then had a life-size mascot made as well. After that was settled we sought artists out whose talent could include pottery, metal or woodwork, paintings, digital design, jewelry, photography…and so on, and businesses who would sponsor an artist to be displayed at their business or accessible location. We have 24 artists and 24 businesses who are participating in the Catfish Art Crawl which will debut starting August 6th through September 5th. An art crawl map will be available to the public for them to find all the creative Catfish masterpieces. You will also get to vote for your favorite and if you love it, you can opt to buy it if the artist is selling their piece, but it will need to stay in their window until Sept 5th. On September 4th, winners will be announced. Also available is our Bobber Drop 50/50 Raffle, purchase a number for $5 and on Sept 4^th we will be dropping the bobbers from a helicopter between the two bridges and Clark will be bobbing for a bobber with a net and the bobber caught will win half of the proceeds this event is at 11 am, so come watch it all unfold.

Once you have done the Catfish Crawl be sure to get a jersey:

Men’s Jerseys available in Green & Blue $30

Ladies Jerseys in Blue only $25

We also have Catfish Pins available for $5

Keep a lookout for Clark and all the updates via our Facebook event page or clarksvilleva.com

Please follow any of the links below to get informed and stay updated about what’s happening at Lakefest 2021!

BE SURE TO COME AND 

• Join us as we honor our 2021 Virginia Lake Festival Sponsors at 7 pm. Behind Hite’s in the Clarksville Ruritans Parking lot
• Enjoy Amusement Rides & Games
• Lakefest t-shirts & Raffle at Chamber Booth
• Craft Beer is available for purchase (Friday night only), selection from BIB (Buggs Island Brewery) no coolers or outside alcohol permitted at the event.
• Food provided by Off the Chain and Mezquital
• 7:30 pm-Live on Stage– The Tobacco Road Band

The Tobacco Road Band

The Tobacco Road Band is privileged to be able to open the 2021 Virginia Lake Festival! Plus, we will be joined on stage by, Grammy Award Winning, Mary Frances Lee – Mama Funk (www.bootyband.com)

The Tobacco Road Band consists of four Southside Virginia musicians with roots deep in the soil, mining the music of our generation. Lead by Ronnie Newcomb (Bass & Vocals) this group is the result of years of musical collaboration. Most of the members have played together for decades. Rounding out the lineup is Barry Hughes (Drums), Bill Baker (Guitar) and our newest member Kevin Allgood (Guitar & Vocals).

Their music blends old soul & blues, country and some good southern Rock & roll to give an audience’s the rhythms and lyrics sure to bring a smile. The band is always pleased when their show turns into a full scale sing-a-long as they play the favorites of the time. In fact, most of our audiences know the lyrics better than the band does! The Tobacco Road Band lives by its motto “Music that will make you move!

WARNING! The surgeon general has determined that continuous enjoyment of this music will result in uncontrollable movement of the hips, feet and lower extremities. In most cases, symptoms often include a better attitude, smiling faces and an overall reconciliation of the day’s events into a feeling of happiness. In rare occasions, overwhelming joy has occurred. ENJOY OFTEN WITH RECKLESS ABANDONMENT!

Founded in 2005, THE KONNECTION has been tabbed as one of the East Coast’s premiere party bands, specializing in a variety of music including Top 40, Rock, Country, R & B, Beach and Oldies.

THE KONNECTION has performed for thousands, being the featured entertainment at numerous festivals and events including The Southern 500 Race Weekend Kick Off Party, The Virginia Pork Festival, The Virginia Cantelope Festival, The Colgate Country Showdown, The Virgilina Summerfest, The Smithfield Ham & Yam Festival, The Oxford Masonic Homecoming Festival, The NC Family Physicians Convention, The Virginia Lake Festival,

The NC Seafood Festival,  The NC Emergency Management Convention, numerous Alive After Five Concerts, Beuna Vista Beach Music Weekend,  The Roxboro Jaycees Beach Music Festival, and The Homecoming Concert with American Idol Winner Scotty McCreery!

THE KONNECTION has shared the stage with many national and regional acts including The Charlie Daniels Band, Delbert McClinton, Travis Tritt, Colt Ford, Exile, Diamond Rio, Ray Scott, Jim Quick & Coastline, The Fantastic Shakers, Craig Woolard Band, The Chairmen of The Board, and more!

THE KONNECTION has also performed for many corporate functions and events including grand openings at Lonestar Steak Houses, Marshall Locksmith’s Customer Appreciation Parties, North Carolina Family Physicians Association Conventions, North Carolina Emergengy Management Conventions, National Pest Control Conventions, North Carolina Shriner’s Conventions, Duke Health Optics, and more!

When you want a band that can bring the party no matter the occasion, you want to make The KONNECTION! Book The KONNECTION Band for your next event today! BOOKING INFO: 919-691-0023 mikebrooksdj@nullgmail.com

Juried Arts & Crafts

We were unsure until end of May that we would be able to host this event this year pending Covid restrictions which has caused a lower vendor count this year, but we still have over 150 vendors ranging from Crafts, Food, Non-profits & Retail items. Vendors this year are coming not only from Virginia, but also other states: Florida, Ohio, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, & Georgia.

We have lots of new & exciting booths this year, from amazing wood workings, acrylic and oil paintings, pottery, jewelry, items to be personalized on the spot, clothing, home accessories and even homemade pet food & attire… just to name a few.

We have a few less food and beverage vendors but there is always our usual Thai, Mediterranean, Greek, African, All-American choices & Kono Pizza! For the sweet tooth, Homemade ice-cream anyone? check out the Amish booth…also it would not be a festival without funnel cakes, deep fried candy bars, & Oreos to icees, smoothies, Lemonade is great for a hot day! NEW this year is a Sober Mobile Bar which is a non-alcoholic beverage truck. There will be lots of food to temp you but nothing like the Smell and aroma of kettle corn, popcorn, cotton candy & more! All here on Saturday.

• Saturday & Sunday AM & Saturday PM.
• For safety of all pilots, flights occur with select weather conditions.
• Should there be storms in a 60-mile radius, or winds locally greater than 10 mph–flights will be cancelled.
• Pilots will meet at the Clarksville Community Center on Woodland dr across from Food Lion  lot around 6:30 to see the location of wind to determine where they will be lifting off.
• Stay tuned via Facebook. 

We are so thrilled Lakefest is happening this year! There are some changes this year and one major change is our fireworks on July 17th!

We are excited to partner with a local company from South Boston this year! The Virginia Skypainters, now owned and led by Ryan Francisco, is well known for it’s outstanding fireworks displays. For over 8 years, the Virginia Skypainters has provided fireworks displays using both professional, and consumer grade fireworks, for events and occasions all over the state of Virginia, and North Carolina.  In 2017, Ryan founded his own fireworks company (Francisco Display Fireworks, LLC) which is a family owned and operated fireworks company located in South Boston, Virginia. Francisco Display Fireworks is now doing business as the Virginia Skypainters and is currently serving Virginia and North Carolina specializing in outdoor aerial displays consisting of shells and ground effects.

Earlier this year, Virginia Skypainters was announced as a winner of the 2021 WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards®, an accolade representing the top wedding professionals across the board in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism reviewed by couples on WeddingWire.  Virginia Skypainters has received this award 7 times out of the last 8 years, and has withheld 5-star ratings with both Wedding Wire and The Knot.

Ryan is a Certified Pyrotechnician who is dedicated to the safe and responsible use of fireworks.  Ryan is licensed with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and is also a member of the Mid Atlantic Pyrotechnics Arts Guild, Pyrotechnics Guild International, and Crackerjacks. Ryan has performed in shows in Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Lakefest Tees have arrived and are available STARTING Monday, June 21st  at the Chamber office and the Virginia Avenue Mall.

As we all know 2020 Lakefest was canceled however we did sell 2020 Lakefest shirts last year as we had hoped to host the event and had already chosen the winning design in early March of 2020. So what we decided was to mirror/reuse last year’s design for 2021. We had the winner of our 2020 Lakefest Logo, Victoria Messick, do some slight changes but resembling the year that didn’t happen.

• Youth Small, Medium, Large colors are Denim & Candy Orange and are $18
• Adult Sizes for Tee’s S, M, L, XL-$23, 2XL, 3XL$25 and NEW size this year is 4xl in natural only. limited amount and colors in small & mediums
• Tee colors: Candy Orange, Heather Clay, Natural, Denim, Heather Irish Green, Yellow, Dark Heather Gray
• V-NECK Colors-Seafoam or Butter
• Ladies Tanks– Terracotta (more tanks will be available at a later time)
• Men’s Tanks– Denim or Butter
• Also pictured are our Admiral & Captain Sponsors whose logo is imprinted on the 44th Annual T-shirts

Tee Sponsors pictured Left to Right: Captain Sponsors: Greg Pipen with Clarksville Ruritans, Dennis Hudson with Food Lion. Admiral Sponsors: Jeremy Satterfield with Microsoft, From VET’S INC: Pamela Clay, Aaron Jones, Jac Wagstaf

For the last six years, Paul Jackson, Helicopter Pilot, has been flying the friendly skies and giving our Lakefest visitors rides over Clarksville and the Lake. Take advantage of seeing Lake Country from the air this year, it is a memory you will never forget. Rides will be available starting Friday evening, at the Food Lion lawn area & Saturday for most of the day. It is $40 per person to ride.

From Macclesfield NC, Fun Fest is a carnival that is designed to help nonprofits make money and for the community to have a safe and fun time.

Special Guests

From Party Princess Productions of Raleigh, we will have Disney Characters will be here for a short time from 10:30-1:30. Tinker Bell & Jack Sparrow will be on stage at 10:45-11:15 and will be roaming crowds till 1 and back to stage at 1 pm. Baby Shark at Buggs Island Baby & Children’s Clothing 331 Virginia Ave also Twisted Dog productions from Madison NC- balloon twisting and magic starting on stage at 10 am…11:30 am & and 12:30.

We are thrilled to find a new sand sculpture artist for this year. Ed Moore from Sandy Feat, who had been our sculptor for many many years has retired. So I have been busy finding a replacement and I am thrilled to announce we have John Gowdy….from Atlantic City, New Jersey. He is a retired captain from the Atlantic City Fire Department having served 27 years, half of those years in the rank of captain. He has dedicated the rest of his life to the arts. May it be, painting, sculpture, or the performance of both together.

“I have been carving sand for over 25 years professionally. I have won many national, international, and world first place awards in just about every master sand sculpture competition on the planet. My greatest and most often award is “people’s choice”. I love pleasing the people who look at my sand displays and get an emotional feeling from them. I work in locations such as: weddings, conventions, state fairs, private parties, lobbies of beautiful hotels, and yes… even on beaches around the world. I teach the art-form to large groups of children, adults, and at corporate team building events. I love what I do and I hope you will too!” ~https://www.johngowdy.com/

We get that question a lot here in our office, and to make life a little less stressful for you & the Town of Clarksville during Lakefest we encourage you to use the shuttle service offered to you as our solution for everyone. (View the Shuttle Map here)

 This service will help with the age old question of where to park? This way you don’t have to worry about being stuck on the side street with all those others trying & hoping to find a spot nearby. The side streets are really narrow and if you are new to the area, you might not know the best way to navigate around the back roads, even though there are detour signs. Even if you are familiar and live out of town, there will be fewer headaches to park your car across from the YMCA, catch the bus and ride to the drop you off at 8th street. And any time you are ready to head back to your vehicle, a bus will be there within minutes to take you back.

Parking & Shuttle Service

Festival-goers are encouraged to Park & Ride.  Parking is $5 per vehicle; there is no charge to ride the shuttles to and from the festival.  Parking will be at the Lake County Business Park, on Noblin Farm Road.  The Shuttle will run from 8 am until 6 pm. If you want to participate in the night activities you will have to catch the last ride by 6 pm to retrieve your vehicle so you can then just park closer to town after 6 pm.

We are excited to announce that we are again working with the Mecklenburg County Public School division with renting two of their buses – one handicapped accessible – and hiring division bus drivers to operate them.

It’s our Lakefest Raffle…doing something a little different this year instead of our normal bundles of prizes…this year play the LAKEFEST LOTTO for a chance to win Money, Money, Money, the top winner wins $1000.

Tickets are now available at the Chamber office and will soon be available from a Chamber board member. We will have them available opening Ceremonies near Clarksville Ruritans and Saturday the 17^th in our booth in front of Town Hall till 2 pm.