Chamber readies for annual Festival on the Neuse

The tantalizing smell of barbecue will soon be wafting down the banks of the Neuse River as the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce presents one of Eastern North Carolina’s fastest growing and most anticipated spring events, the 2006 Festival on the Neuse.

This year’s festival committee is launching a new Web site, www.festivalontheneuse.com, designed to promote the festival and make information on the festival available to the community.

Activities will kick-off May 4, with the Kinston-Lenoir County Prayer Breakfast followed by the Caswell Center Foundation Golf Tournament at Falling Creek Golf and Country Club.

Two competitive events are scheduled for May 5, the 25th Annual Wil King Hog Happenin’ Cookin’ Contest, awarding more than $2,500.00 in prizes and trophies, and the festival’s first Amateur Shag Contest, Shagging Under the Stars, followed by The Main Event Band, featuring some of Eastern North Carolina’s best beach music.

Festival on the Neuse stage entertainment for May 6 showcases Molasses Creek from Ocracoke, the Rhondels from Virginia Beach, Va., the ARC Bark, the Great Neuse River Duck Race, SALUTE! and Walk of Honor’s A Tribute to Heroes, and a children’s area sponsored by the Community Council for the Arts.

The various activities at Festival on the Neuse are a matter of time and taste … from the Lenoir Memorial Hospital’s Carolina Classics Car Show, arts and crafts, gift and food vendors, to a mechanical bull ride.

Proceeds from the festival benefit the Association for Retarded Citizens, The American Cancer Society, the Lower Neuse River Foundation, local VFW and American Legion chapters, and the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce.

Local businesses and organizations are encouraged to participate through sponsorship or team registration.

Churches, volunteer fire departments, and civic organizations are encouraged to provide cook teams for the Hog Happenin’. Pigs will be provided.

The entertainment committee is seeking individuals or groups (church choirs, school choral groups, bands, magicians, comedians, etc.) interested in providing entertainment for the festival on May 6.

For more information on the Festival on the Neuse, contact Jan Barwick at the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce, (252) 527-1131, e-mail jbarwick@kinstonchamber.com or visit the Web site at www.festivalontheneuse.com.