On Oct. 16 and 17, West Plains will host the Ozark Heritage Festival. The festival, formerly named the Old-Time Music Festival, will offer live music as well as a wide variety of arts and crafts.
Activities will include square dancing, storytelling, jig dancing, pie contests, sorghum making and more.
The festival will also feature mule jumping competitions. What started as a way for farmers to cross fences, eventually became a contest with cash prizes.
"Traditionally in these rural areas, the people who are hunting fields, they trained the smaller sized mules to be able to go kind of straight up and over the fences if they encountered a fence so they would not have to climb over those fences," said West Plains native and main festival organizer, Kathleen Morrisey. "You know, I mean, it was an easier way to get — and I'm talking about the mules did not have riders on them. Mules jumped over the fences themselves. And then we're on the other side of the pasture. So, then the hunters could just continue on what they were doing. So, this became a tradition...Missouri has the most mule jump competitions of any state. And we have our share down here because, you know, there's still people that are raising those smaller mules to jump."
The Springfield Zoo Education Department will feature a “Creepy Crawlies” exhibition, demonstrating the insects’ vital roles in the ecosystem. The Missouri Department of Conservation will also appear at the festival with classes and workshops, including leatherwork.
Morrisey said the festival honors the rich traditions of the Ozarks.
“The festival is a living thing,” she said, “and we say that because we’re not trying to recreate something that is not important to the community. It’s up to the people in the community to decide what they want to come out, bring out and demonstrate.”
The Ozark Heritage Festival will be held October 16 and 17 in downtown West Plains, in and around the West Plains Civic Center.