2023 DATE: September 15-17, 2023
This post documents my experience on September 20, 2013.
I started my festival weekend early Friday morn en route to Thornville…
…where I got caught up in festival traffic 4 miles from the entrance gates…
…and crawled for over 40 minutes to the super-loaded parking lot…
…only to miss the shuttle…
…walk…
…and walk…
…to the Backwoods Fest entrance gates (where I paid a $9 admission).
But two years prior, I attempted to go to the festival one late Saturday morning and festival traffic had stopped two miles from the I-70 E exit ramp…
…meaning 9 miles from the actual festival!
That’s because the Backwoods Fest brings tons of people…
…tons of people with strollers and wagons…
…which were eventually emptied of all children and filled with purchased items…
…such as mittens…
…hand-crafted birdhouses…
…jewelry…
…crafts galore…
…and wooden furniture.
There were 300 vendors out in the open…
…back in the woods…
…and surrounding a large park area…
…and they offered everything from mums, pumpkins…
…antlered treasures…
…charms…
…doll clothing…
…and babies…
…(well, they looked like real babies).
There were also hippy items…
…handmade bows and arrows…
…dog products…
…vinyl record purses…
…military dog tags…
…hillbilly scarecrows…
…and just about anything to fit your eclectic tastes.
For the kids, there was Fort Backwoods…
…equipped with a corn maze…
…tomahawk throwing…
…living history camps…
…and many animal skins and wooden weapons to enjoy.
Other attractions included face painting…
…a cemetery…
…Wizard of Oz decor…
…vast amounts of pooches…
…and quite a bit of music!
Along with the main stage…
…bands were found on smaller stages…
…amongst dining festival goers…
…and along the vendor trail.
Almost all musicians were found near the dining area…
…where cauldrons bubbled…
…and festival goers lined up for pizza…
…chicken…
…fried green tomatoes…
…pork rinds and fry pies.
It was easy to really go overboard with the eating…
…something I realized when I got my fried bologna sandwich.