Grown Here at Home: Greatest of All Time Sheep and Goat festival returning to NRV; organizers asking for help

DUBLIN, Va. (WDBJ) - The New River Valley Sheep and Goat Club is working on something special.

“One of the things that we’ve started doing to give back to the community is an annual, what we call, The Greatest of All Time Sheep and Goat Festival,” said Jennifer McClellan, president of the NRV Sheep and Goat Club.

The event is free.

“We have face painting, a kids’ maze, different breeds of sheep you can look at, a petting zoo, we’ll have a photo booth. One of my favorite things is a purple sheep competition. The kids have to go around and find the purple sheep. It’s a scavenger hunt,” McClellan explained.

The festival is for all ages, centered around good, clean fun, all while teaching about the sheep and goat industries. This will be the third year of the event. Since it started, the support has been phenomenal. The first two festivals brought in about 2,000 people each time. McClellan said this year they’re hoping the festival will be bigger and better, and they’re reaching out to the community for help.

“We are in need of vendors for funnel cakes, ice cream trucks, popcorn – different fair kind of foods like that,” McClellan said.

While the vendor fee is $125, with the turnout they’re expecting, they’re confident you’ll make that money back pretty quickly. They’re also in need of musicians to volunteer their time to perform.

“We try to keep a different band going several times throughout the day. If you could help us out, that would be great,” McClellan said.

Last year, 170 people volunteered to make the festival a success. The 3rd Annual Greatest of All Time Sheep and Goat Festival is Saturday, September 23, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the New River Valley Fairgrounds in Dublin. If you’d like to be a vendor or volunteer as a musician, contact Jennifer McClellan at 540-392-6067.

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