SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. — As detailed preparations get under way for next month’s National Cornbread Festival, organizers are hoping for just one thing — nice weather.
The festival, which will be held in downtown South Pittsburg on April 25-26, is in its 19th year, and Festival Committee President Beth Duggar said its success is dependent on that weekend’s weather conditions.
She said volunteer groups and other local organizations “share in the financial rewards” reaped from the two-day event.
All about cornbread
For more information on this year’s National Cornbread Festival, visit www.nationalcornbread.com.
“We can talk about it, promote it, put ads on TV, but if we don’t have good weather, it kills us,” Duggar said. “The groups that come to work at the festival are never promised any type of donation. It all depends on how well it does.”
When the festival began, the city had to provide some of the financial backing, but in just three years it was able to stand on its own. The festival has been its own entity as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with a charter and a board of directors ever since.
During those early years, the festival had a reinvestment committee, which allowed people and groups to write grant requests to share in the profits.
“It got to where everybody was being politicked, and we were making people mad that didn’t get a grant,” Duggar said. “So, we decided the best way was to give the money back to the people that are actually working and volunteering.”
In just the last two years, the reinvestment dividend to the town has totaled $328,900.
Almost half of that money has been earmarked to help revitalize the once-dilapidated Princess Theatre, Duggar said, which was recently transformed from a downtown eyesore to a city showpiece.
Other projects over the years have included purchasing the town clock at the corner of Cedar Avenue and Third Street, upgrades to South Pittsburg High School’s Beene Stadium, and a softball field at the school.
Festival funds have been used to purchase strollers for a local day care, as well as soccer equipment, landscaping and other equipment for Richard Hardy Memorial School, South Pittsburg Elementary School, and a local youth program, among a long list of other items.
The festival even provided funds for the town’s police department to purchasestun guns.
“I don’t know how many people knew all that, but that’s what that money has gone for,” Duggar said.
Volunteer groups have received more than $410,000 over the life of the festival, she said, and local school groups have gotten the “lion’s share” of that money totaling nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
The Cornbread Festival’s unusual success has led more than 30 other communities from around the Southeast to seek the committee’s advice, and the Tennessee Department of Tourism has asked festival leaders to run seminars on their strategies.
“We’re the envy of other communities,” Duggar said.
Organizers from the National Banana Pudding Festival in Hickman County, Tenn., were blunt in their assessment of South Pittsburg’s event, he said.
“They said, ‘We’re going to be honest. We’re going to copy everything you do,'” Duggar said. “And they did. That’s the most sincere form of flattery.”
Mayor Jane Dawkins praised the committee and the thousands of volunteers.
“Some of them work year after year, and some work year around,” she said. “It’s certainly a testament to them and the town.”
Duggar said the festival has taught an example of volunteerism and community pride for the town’s young people for almost two decades.
“It gives people a sense of belonging,” she said. “It’s a very good thing.”
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.