KINGWOOD — The Southeast Tourism Society (STS) named the Preston County Buckwheat Festival a Top 20 Event for September 2019.
According to its website, STS promotes and develops tourism in its member states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
It began giving Top 20 Events awards in 1985 “to bring more publicity and recognition to the best events in the Southeast.” Top 20 events are selected for each month and published quarterly.
The 78th Preston County Buckwheat Festival will be Sept. 26-29 in Kingwood. David Brown is this year’s general chairman, and Buddy Turner is the assistant general chairman.
Brown said the Buckwheat Festival is unique.
“We annually, I believe, have over 100,000 people in attendance over the four or five days of the festival,” Brown said. “With the longevity of it and different kinds of events to pique people’s interests, that’s why we were given this award.”
Also, Brown noted, “Everything that our festival does is right there in one spot. It’s one of those rarities in the region where all the parades start and end at the fairgrounds, the parking is all there, we have a show on Friday night again this year, the coronation, the livestock events … arts and crafts.”
And, of course, buckwheat cake and sausage dinners.
This year’s festival royalty include Queen Ceres LXXVIII Madeline Sophia Warnick and King Buckwheat LXXVIII Hunter Wade Thomas. The 2019 festival theme is “A Treasure Trove of Sights and Sounds.”
Brown praised the Greater Morgantown Convention and Visitors Bureau for the work its staff did to prepare the application for the award.
Bureau President and CEO Susan Riddle said in a press release, “Major events give us an opportunity to improve the local tourism economy and showcase all the wonderful things in Mountaineer Country, and providing opportunities for them to receive recognition helps our organization continue to market the Mountaineer Country destination.”
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