This year’s Lexington County Peach Festival on July 4th at the Gilbert Community Park is shining slightly brighter than past years as the 50th year of the festival has arrived. With more than a dozen community volunteers who have been involved for all 50 years, the Peach Festival’s marked success is because of the coordination and cooperation of hundreds of additional community volunteers each year. The festival shines because of individuals who are willing to give a full day or more to complete designated assignments and others who willingly give several hours, most doing so year after year. These volunteers are the backbone of success for the festival. The hard work and dedication of these volunteers have woven the Gilbert community into a special place where residents demonstrate a willingness to reach beyond themselves for a common goal.
When the first festival made its début in 1959, the event included peaches, political speakers, a peach pageant, bar-be-cue lunch, and soft drinks. Additions to the event through the years have included the parade, arts and crafts, peachy art contest, clown contest, multiple pageants, a car show, antique tractor and machinery show, fireworks, and a variety of peach dishes with the bar-be-cue, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, and other foods. Changes in venue include movement from the campus of Gilbert School (the current Gilbert Elementary School) to the Gilbert Primary School campus and finally to the Gilbert Community Park which was made possible in large part through the festival’s fund raising success.
Shade in the park this year will also offer entertainment which begins at 8:30 a.m. and continues through the day at three stages throughout the park until 10:30 p.m. Groups and individuals performing include: Magic, Shag Time, Gilbert Studio of Dance Arts, Deniese’s School of Dance, Breana Burkett Collier – Fiddle, Constance Flemming, Unnamed Bluegrass Band, Mama’s Home Cookin’, City Lights, Sly Dog, The Hendrix Family, The Overtones, David Shull, and Weekend. The parade will begin at 9:30 on Hampton Street and move up Main Street to Gilbert Primary School and will offer more than a hundred entries.
The 50th year includes a special speaker, Clebe McClary, recipient of three Purple Hearts, the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. Clebe has used his powerful story ofcourage, determination and strength to motivate audiences around the world. The public is invited to hear this American hero speak at 11:00 a.m. in the large tent at
the end of the park nearest Gilbert Middle School. Clebe will also serve as Parade Marshall. The 2008 Lexington County Peach Queen Ellen Elizabeth Neely of Lexington along with other newly crowned queens will be introduced at the 11:00 a.m. program.
A Revolutionary War camp re-enactment from the South Carolina Company of Historical Re-enactors, the Fourth South Carolina Regiment (Artillery Regiment) will be set up in front of and to the east of the Gilbert Middle School, off Rikard Circle. Plan to visit the camp site while at the festival which will include a soldier’s tent, a cook fire with food preparation, a dining fly with kitchen equipment, a display of soldier’s gear and weapons, and four cannons. On-going all-day demonstrations and discussions of military and civilian life in South Carolina during the American Revolution will be available.
Also visit the antique tractor and machinery show and the car show. Treat yourself to delicious food that will be available in the park and stroll Rikard Circle to see the arts and crafts displays. The evening will close with a fireworks show scheduled to begin at 10:00 p.m. Meanwhile a full day of family fun will be waiting as Gilbert community volunteers welcome you to the 50th Peach Festival. |
