Welcome To 67th Clothesline Fair

ANNUAL FAIR FEATURES CRAFTS, FOOD, HISTORY, SQUARE DANCING

The Prairie Grove Lions Club, the Arts Center of the Ozarks and Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park invite you to attend the 67th Annual Clothesline Fair over the Labor Day weekend. The fair opens Saturday, Sept. 1, and runs through Monday, Sept. 3.

One of the oldest arts and crafts festivals in Arkansas, the Clothesline Fair has something for everyone.

Craft vendor tents, sponsored by the Arts Center of the Ozarks, will open at 8:30 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and will operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Labor Day. More than 100 craft booths will feature artisans selling, displaying, and demonstrating their handmade wares.

Food trucks and various drink concessions will be open all day, each day of the event. In addition, there will be square dancing, antique farm equipment displays and musical entertainment.

Hindman Hall Museum & Visitor Center will be open daily and free of charge from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The museum features interactive exhibits, artifacts, and videos, along with the park gift shop and restrooms. Park grounds, picnic areas, and restrooms are open daily from 8 a.m. until dark.

The Clothesline Fair is free to the public. The state park charges a $5 parking fee each day. Other lots also are available for paid parking.

The annual Clothesline Fair Parade starts at 9 a.m. Saturday. The parade, sponsored by Prairie Grove Area Chamber of Commerce, starts at the middle school, goes through downtown and ends at Battlefield State Park. This year the Chamber is asking for a $5 donation from parade entries with proceeds to help with downtown projects for Main Street Prairie Grove and its Downtown Network Program.

Each day, a living historian will be in the Latta Kitchen from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., demonstrating pioneer life in the Ozarks during the Civil War to the public.

Members of the Rustic Relics Club will display a variety of antique tractors and other farming equipment throughout the fair with special demonstrations for visitors.

Activities will move to the amphitheater for square dancing on Saturday afternoon. Dancing will start earlier this year because there are more dance groups involved, according to Craig Battles with Prairie Grove Lions Club.

The Clothesline Fair has 56 younger groups dancing and exhibition dancing will start at 2 p.m. Another 16 square dance groups are registered to dance in the Peggy Parks Memorial Square Dance competition and this will start at 6:30 p.m.

All exhibition groups will dance again beginning at 2 p.m. Monday. The finals of the square dance competition will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday, with the winning group announced at the end of the evening. Second place, third place and

honorary awards also will be handed out.

Gospel music is the featured program on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. Several gospel and country/southern gospel groups are scheduled to sing Sunday afternoon.

The Prairie Grove Lions Club sponsors the square dancing and coordinates all concessions at the Clothesline Fair. Proceeds are used to help others, especially those with vision needs. The Club once again will have chicken dinners, chicken legs and smoked bologna sandwiches for sale at the Latta Barn. Food trucks will provide other varieties of menu items.

Arts Center of the Ozark handles the craft show and Battlefield State Park staff prepares the grounds and takes care of needs throughout the three-day event.

For more information contact Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park at 479-846-2990 or by e-mail at prairiegrove@arkansas.com.

For more information about the crafts show, contact Arts Center of the Ozarks, 479-7515441, or visit the ACO web site http://wwwacozarks.org.

FILE PHOTO The temperatures were hot Monday afternoon during the 2017 Clothesline Fair but that didn’t stop a large crowd from coming out to cheer on their favorite square dance groups. These two children, Bryanna Kate McKnight and Brayden Burgess, were partners last year with Halos & Horns square dance group. For 2018, 56 younger groups and 16 competitive groups are registered to square dance on Saturday and Monday.

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER The crowd watching Sweetheart Squares perform shows only a portion of the thousands of people who show up every year for the square dance portion of the Clothesline Fair. Square dancing will start at 2 p.m. this year for the younger groups and 6:30 p.m. for the competition groups.