Fairs, Festivals and Tourism in DeKalb
This week is the 55th annual DeKalb County VFW Agricultural Fair. This is an extremely well attended event each year in DeKalb County, and rightfully so. This fair is not your ordinary county fair thanks to a lot of hard work from Charles Stephens (Fair Chairman) and all the volunteers and members of the local VFW Post. The thing that separates our fair from other county fairs is the abundance of true leadership from volunteers and local clubs whom are well organized. These organizations provide us great exhibits like; the flower show, bakery show, vegetable show and canned products show. Then there is the 4-H club and all of its animal entries, demonstrations, competitions, all of which add animals to the visitor’s plethora of things to do and see at the fair. If you are an artist then you can enter and show your art or photography. There is a tractor show and on Friday and Saturday nights there is live music. All of this is in addition to the great midway games, food and rides.
The next big event after the Fair (not counting the fact Football is a weekly big event) is the Colorfest in Mentone on October 16-17. This festival is one of our local favorites bringing many local people to it, but it also attracts many out of towners who plan their fall trips here based on this wonderful weekend of fun activities. This same weekend we have the 1st Annual Alabama Thunder Bikers Festival and Concert in Dogtown. There will be live music from Adam Tomlin Band, Jonathon Alverson & The Hillbilly Circus Band, Cool Hand Luke and more. Tickets for the three day event are $30.00. It will be located at North South Cycles- 665 County Rd 251 off Jennings Rd.
DeKalb Tourism summer review:
This was a good summer for DeKalb Tourism. We started the summer with radio advertising all across the gulf during the oil spill. Our ad did not mention the disaster but was an invitation to come spend some time with us in the mountains and valleys of DeKalb County. We talked about our scenic attributes, our places to stay and things to do and see. Year to date we are up compared to last year by 10%. This is a great contribution to our local economy in a time when the economy continues to struggle. Tourism is a clean industry that brings in tax revenue without the built in cost of supporting a full time resident. In talking to other tourism organizations our growth is well above average for the year. Additional advertising included TV ads on 33/40 in Birmingham and on Comcast in North AL and TN. We continue to use some newspaper and magazine ads in addition to our heavy use of the internet and social media sites. Our new fiscal year begins in October and we will have the added advantage of having the new N.E Agri Center events added into our portfolio of offerings here in DeKalb County.
For more information on events in DeKalb County contact the DeKalb County Tourist Association at 256-845-3957 or view us at www.tourdekalb.com
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