As summer approaches, several events in Greene County are taking place during the end of April and beginning of May. As Blair Zimmerman, chairman of the Greene County Board of Commissioners, said there is “a lot to choose from” and something for everybody to enjoy.
May is usually a busy time for events in Greene County. Joanne Marshall, director of Greene County Tourism, said she has no say in when events happen, and that the dates are decided by the event organizers.
“Each event is run by an individual organizer and they set the date,” said Marshall. “The end of May seems to be a popular time to hold events… Essentially, from now until the middle of November, we have events every weekend.”
The 17th annual Extreme Bull Riding, hosted by Buckin’ B Cattle Co., was one event that stood out from the rest. Around 30 cowboys from across the East Coast came April 20 and 21 to compete for points in the national circuit. Marshall, who has personal ties with the area, said the event is important in the bull riding world.
“That’s a pretty large event,” said Marshall. “Matt DeJohn, the owner, is a local resident and is a producer of shows across the nation. He holds one of his shows every year in his home county.”
Another significant event was Hammer-In at W.A. Young & Sons Foundry and Machine Shop, where blacksmiths demonstrated how tools and equipment were created in ages past. Zimmerman said that the skills displayed at the Hammer-In warrant resepct.
“If you have never been to anything mechanical, and see how they used to build stuff back in the day, it’s very interesting,” said Zimmerman. “You have to give them credit to what they did back in the day, it’s pretty amazing. Everything [now] is computerized and you put in a program, and you machine stuff and build stuff. Back in the day, you had to actually hammer and hand lay metal.”
With so many events happening, people having to choose what events to attend could cause overall lower attendance. Marshall doesn’t see this as a significant concern, saying each event has their own unique, dedicated attendees.
“There are some that have to choose what they want to do,” she said. “There are others that go to all of them and just shorten their stay at each event. But for the most part, they don’t compete with the same audience. From a tourism standpoint, they do bring different audiences from outside the county.”
As a college student, Marshall was always encouraged to leave the college bubble and to experience the world. Marshall did so, and encourages everyone inside the community to do the same through attending the county’s many events.
“I now have stronger ties with the region in which my college was centered in,” said Marshall.” I look forward to going even more on homecoming weekends because then I can also tie in an event that I found to be my favorite.”