DOSWELL, Va. -- The Virginia Farm Festival is back for its third year at Meadow Event Park this Friday and Saturday.
Mixing fun with agriculture education, visitors can expect to see gardening displays, farm animals, a picnic basket culinary competition, food, vendors, pony rides, a corn hole tournament, a demolition derby and antique machinery.
“We think that antique tractors are such a great story about how farming took place decades ago,” Vice President of Operations Marlene Jolliffe said. “We do have an antique tractor show competition and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday we have an antique tractor parade.”
The Virginia Farm Festival seeks to connect people to the work of farmers and explains farm-to-table practices.
“Less than 2% of Americans are directly on the farm and most are several generations removed from the farm,” Sarah Jane Thompson with Meadow Event Park explained. “[They] don’t have the opportunity to go and see how their food is made or how, how everything makes it to their plate.”
Thompson said Meadow Event Park is a great venue for the Virginia Farm Festival to share this knowledge.
“It's awesome that we get to celebrate those people and also all the people along the supply chain that are making that happen from the field to the fork,” said Thompson.
The Virginia Farm Festival is intended to be a scaled down version of the State Fair of Virginia, accommodating the size and availability of Meadow Event Park in May.
The State Fair of Virginia is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 22 through Sunday, Oct. 1, also at the Doswell venue. Tickets go on sale Friday, Sept. 1.
“We're rolling out a new theme this year called ‘Your Fair Your Way,’ to celebrate all of the ways that our different fairgoers love to enjoy the fair,” said Jolliffe.
The Virginia Farm Festival continues Saturday from 11 a.m. through 10 p.m. at Meadow Event Park. For more information visit https://virginiafarmfestival.org/,
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