Sourwood Festival poised for sweet return
Summer tradition is back with a new flow
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
June 7, 2021
Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sharon Tabor discusses changes to the 43rd Annual Sourwood Festival, including an Appalachian Heritage exhibit that will be held in Town Square, Saturday, Aug. 14. Photo by Fred McCormick
A local tradition will blend the old with the new when it returns to downtown Black Mountain this summer.
The 43rd Annual Sourwood Festival, which was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will feature plenty of the sweet amber-colored honey from which it takes its name, but organizers believe a redesigned layout will improve the flow of foot traffic and increase its benefit to local businesses.
While last year’s hiatus was unprecedented for the Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce, which has coordinated the festival since it debuted in 1977, it allowed organizers time to consider a modern approach to Sourwood, according to chamber executive director Sharon Tabor. The 2021 festival, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 14 and Sunday, Aug. 15, will feature an expanded footprint and an emphasis on arts and crafts.
“We’re concentrating on 100 vendors, primarily crafters and artisans, because they lost quite a bit of revenue last year and there was no federal assistance available to them for a long time,” Tabor said. “In past years we had around 200 vendors between Sutton and Vance Avenues with rides and food vendors scattered throughout, so it was more like a fair festival.”
The traditional layout of Sourwood resulted in the majority of attendees congregating south of Cherry and State Streets, leaving many local merchants on the outskirts of the festival, according to Tabor.
“When we started looking ahead to this year, we knew social distancing would be something we’d have to consider,” she said. “Changing the flow and pulling people from the most southern end of downtown to the northern end would keep people moving and bring them right by the doors of our merchants on Cherry and State (Streets).”
A significant change this year will highlight Appalachian Heritage in Town Square, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., Saturday. The exhibit will feature traditional craft demonstrations like spinning, weaving, lace-making, broom-making and more, and can be accessed by the walkways through the public green space.
A quilt featuring Sourwood Festival t-shirts from the 1990s is one of three that will be raffled off by the chamber of commerce in early July. The quilts are on display in the Visitor Center. Photo by Fred McCormick
“The Town graciously amended its Town Square regulations so we could do this craft center here,” Tabor said. “We’ll also have Appalachian music here, beginning at 1 p.m., and again at 3 p.m., so people can bring chairs and blankets and listen.”
Directional signage will highlight the Black Mountain Tailgate Market, which is held nearby at First Baptist Church of Black Mountain, from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m., each Saturday through November.
The acoustic performances in Town Square will be on just one of several music venues throughout Sourwood, a departure from the old format that featured a tent along Sutton Avenue serving as a central location for entertainment. Live music will be held behind the Black Mountain Natural Foods store on Black Mountain Avenue, Saturday and Sunday, while Cherry Street Square will provide an intimate setting for audiences on Sunday.
A food court featuring a variety of vendors will occupy the Town parking lot north of the intersection of Black Mountain and Sutton Avenue, and other new additions to the festival include pony rides and a petting zoo.
While vendors will not set up behind SunTrust as they have in past years, the amusement rides will return to the parking lot directly south of the railroad tracks. Other long-held traditions will be prominent as well, according to Tabor.
“We will have a couple of sourwood honey vendors and a honeybee demonstration,” she said. “Bees are obviously an important part of our environment, and these demonstrations help educate people about the role they play in it. They will also learn about the making of sourwood honey, which requires a minimum of 30% of the pollen used in making it to come from the sourwood tree.”
The tree, which is native to N.C. and most prevalent in the mountains, produces white flowers from which the pollen is sourced in the summer. The honey produced by bees using the pollen is popular for its unique rich flavor, but can be difficult to find due to the scarcity of its source.
The Sourwood Festival, which averaged approximately 30,000 visitors per year before the pandemic, is a popular destination for people seeking the rare honey.
“This event really is an asset to our community,” said Doug Hay, who represents the Black Mountain Town Council on the chamber’s board of directors. “There is no doubt that not having it last year was a blow for the community, and everyone was eager to bring it back this year.”
The biggest challenge facing the chamber as it began planning the 2021 festival was the uncertainty brought about by the pandemic.
“Several months ago we didn’t know if it would be able to happen, or what kinds of limitations we might have to deal with,” Hay said. “The board had to be creative when it came to spacing everything out. Of course, now all of the restrictions have been lifted, but this has been an opportunity to re-think the way Sourwood is laid out.”
The Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce will hold a raffle for three quilts that use vintage t-shirts to commemorate the Sourwood Festival, which is returning this August after a 2020 hiatus. Photo by Fred McCormick
While the festival brings a large number of people to the town every summer, he continued, this year’s changes are designed to bring more of them to local businesses.
“I think that’s been a bit of a disconnect in the past with the festival and local merchants, because a lot of them felt like the festival didn’t always bring people to their shops,” Hay said. “Considering this is a chamber event that’s intended to bring people into town and support chamber members, changing that flow will help get more people walking in front of the local stores, stopping in to see what’s in there and hopefully buying something.”
Incorporating the Town Square on Saturday will help introduce visitors to a broader area downtown, according to Tabor, and the Appalachian Heritage exhibit will celebrate the region’s culture.
“None of the tents set up there will be selling items,” she said. “It’s really a creative and interactive way to honor the history and heritage of the mountains in a great location right in the center of town.”
Three lap quilts made of vintage t-shirts from past Sourwood Festivals are on display in the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center. Each quilt highlights a different decade of the event, and all will be included in a raffle at the beginning of July.
“All great towns have a signature event that people in the region look forward to attending, and that offers a unique perspective of that town,” Hay said. “We have Holly Jolly and Sourwood. This year, after everyone has been locked away during the pandemic, we have an opportunity to come together and experience all of the joys of Sourwood. It’s an incredible way to celebrate the progress we’ve made through the last year and come together as a community.”