Life

Festival season sprouts with Garden Jubilee

Mountain Dan will carve dead sweetgum into multiple critters.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 25, 2012

City crews mowed and trimmed the new Gateway Park at the triangle of Church, Main and King.

Garden centers set up plants and flowers at the Visitors Center. And the signs went up warning motorists to clear Main Street by 5 o'clock this evening. Prep was under way for Garden Jubilee, the first big town festival of the season.
All day Saturday and Sunday, the event and its 265 vendors selling every green thing imaginable are expected to draw 75,000 visitors on a weekend that should start sunny and hot and cool down a bit.
Saturday should be sunny with a high of 87 while Sunday will see highs around 79 with a slight chance of showers after noon. On Memorial Day, it should be partly sunny with a high of 81 and a 30 percent chance of showers.
Besides the Garden Jubilee, visitors can take in the White Squirrel Festival in Brevard. The annual Memorial Day service in Hendersonville is at 11 a.m. at Forest Lawn Cemetery. That afternoon, at 4, the Hendersonville High School symphonic band will play a concert featuring music from composer John Williams and from Disney and Pixar films, among many others. The concert benefits the Flat Rock Cinema and its new digital projector and the HHS band.
At the northwest corner of the Visitors Center property on Friday morning, Mountain Dan Smathers surveyed a dead sweetgum tree and began planning what kind of critters he could create with his 16-inch chainsaw.
"There's some pretty small limbs," he said as he eyed the top branches 10-15 feet off the ground. "I don't want to waste any of it. I'm thinking about doing an owl, a red-tail hawk, a squirrel, a couple of raccoons. I want to put in a bear or too."
It takes a master chainsaw artist to look at a dead tree and see in his mind, two birds, a couple of furry varmints and a bear but that is what Mountain Dan is known for.
"People ask me that and I tell people I'm conditioned for it," he said when the Lightning asked him if his arms get tired. "I've been doing this since I was 10 years old."
When he felled trees in the Pacific Northwest, he used chainsaw blades up to 6-feet long, and the shortest bar he used was 36 inches. For the live chainsaw art this weekend — he will be carving the critters out of the tree trunk and branches all day Saturday and Sunday — he will use a 16-inch bar and shorter bars designed for carving.
The 19th annual Garden Jubilee runs 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday on Main Street from Sixth Avenue to Caswell Street.
Vendors sell handmade arts and crafts, plants and items to enhance outdoor living areas while local and regional nurseries offer thousands of annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs and hard to find plants on every block of the festival.
Schedule
Saturday, May 26
∙ 10:00AM - 6:00PM - Street Festival (Main Street from Sixth Ave - Caswell St) arts & crafts, 1000's of plants, garden experts, and food
∙ 10:00AM - 5:00PM - Lowe's Kids Clinic - hands-on project; Lowe's Expo - plants, products reps, outdoor equipment, decorative pavers & block, yard ornaments and garden & lawn experts; located at the Visitors Information Center - 201 S. Main Str.
∙ Lowe's Garden Clinics with Southern Living Magazine Specialist Bill Slack at the Visitors Information Center (201 S. Main St.)
11:00 AM - "WOW! What a beautiful front yard"
1:00 PM - "No sun in your garden? No problem"
3:00 PM - "Through the garden gate, Pathways and Patios"
Sunday, May 27
∙ 10:00AM - 6:00PM - Street Festival (Main Street from Sixth Ave - Caswell St) arts & crafts, 1000's of plants, garden experts, and food
∙ 10:00AM - 5:00PM - Lowe's Kids Clinic - hands-on project; Lowe's Expo - plants, products reps, outdoor equipment, decorative pavers & block, yard ornaments and garden & lawn experts; located at the Visitors Information Center - 201 South Main Street
∙ Lowe's Garden Clinics with Southern Living Magazine Specialist Bill Slack at the Visitors Information Center (201 S. Main St.)
1:00 PM - "WOW! What a beautiful front yard"
3:00 PM - "No sun in your garden? No problem"
The ninth annual White Squirrel Festival kicks off in downtown Brevard with a Memorial Day Parade at 9 a.m. Saturday and the presentation of the wreath at 10 a.m. at the Gazebo. The street festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. The weekend includes music, crafts, the fifth annual 5K/10K White Squirrel Race, the sixth annual Squirrel Box Derby and lots of food.

White Squirrel
The White Squirrel Festival gets the tunes cranked up about noon and continues all day. Headlining this year's groups is the Firecracker Jazz Band who will take the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday.
Music on the West Main Stage
Saturday
Noon: Davidson River Taiko
1:30 p.m.: Jason DeCristofaro Sextet
3 p.m.: Serious Clark
4:30 p.m.: Naren
6 p.m.: Nikki Talley
7:30 p.m.: Jon Stickley Trio
9 p.m.: Firecracker Jazz Band

Sunday
Noon: The Fox Fire
1:30 p.m.: Dave Desmelik
3 p.m.: Jazz Drovers-a 5tet
4:30 p.m.: Julie Lee
6 p.m.: Fifth House
7:30 p.m.: Chatham County Line
9 p.m.: Jeff Sipe Group
with special guest Ike Stubblefield

Squirrel Box Derby Schedule
Saturday, 8 to 11 years; 12-17 years
9 a.m.: Registration/Inspection — Participant Set-up
10 am.: Line-up display/judging
11 a.m.: Trial runs
11 a.m.-5 p.m.: Nationwide NASCAR show car
1:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Races
5:45 p.m.: Awards Ceremony

Sunday, 18+ years and businesses
10a.m.: Registration/Inspection — Participant Set-up
11 am.: Line-up display/judging
11:30 a.m.: Trial runs
1:30 to 5:30 p.m.: Races
5:45 p.m.: Awards Ceremony