The Spruce Pine Town Council approved a permit for the Fire on the Mountain blacksmithing festival this weekend at its meeting last week.
Downtown Director Spencer Bost told the council that, in light of the area’s ongoing disaster recovery, the festival on Saturday will be slightly smaller than in past years. Bost said that in the festival industry, one of the most important things to do is avoid skipping a year when there are struggles.
“If you skip a year, that’s how festivals die,” Bost said.
Fire on the Mountain is an annual celebration of the art of the blacksmith that is always held on the last Saturday in April in downtown Spruce Pine. The event, April 26, is a partnership between Spruce Pine Main Street, Penland School of Craft, and the Toe River Arts. The festival contains blacksmith demonstrations, blacksmith vendor booths, youth and adult forge-offs, hands-on tents, kids’ activities, food, and more. Over time it has grown into one of the largest blacksmith festivals on the East Coast. Festivities begin at 10 a.m.
Forging demonstrations begin at 10 a.m. with Erica Moody, followed by Abe Pardee at 11:30 a.m., Liam Hoffman at 1 p.m., and Paul Spainhour at 2:30 p.m.
Up close demonstrations by featured blacksmith Anton Yakushev will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
An artist reception will be held at Friday, April 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Toe River Arts Studio with an opportunity to meet the blacksmiths who are exhibiting at the Kokol Gallery in Spruce Pine.
New Town Manager Daniel Stines suggested that in the future it might be a better policy to have the town administration review and approve routine festival permits, rather than submitting every one to a council vote. The council members voted to approved delegating this authority to Stines and his staff.
Bost said that the recent Rural Revival Project festival featuring musician Oliver Anthony went well, and that downtown businesses had benefited from the event.
The council discussed the possibility of bringing back the town-wide yard sale that was held for the first time last year (similar to the longstanding event in Bakersville).
“It was probably the easiest thing I did last year,” Bost said.
Library agreement
The council approved an agreement with the Yancey County Library to allow the regional library system to continue using office space in Yancey County for one year.
The regional system, formerly known as the AMY (Avery-Mitchell-Yancey) Regional Library, will become the Toe River Valley Library System after Yancey County withdraws from the partnership in July.
Yancey County voted to leave the regional library last year.
Ongoing wastewater repairs
The council voted to spend $319,000 on a new belt press for the wastewater treatment plant. The plant has been without one since the flooding from Hurricane Helene last fall.
“There’s been no solid waste removal since the storm, so we’ve got six months backed up,” said Donnie Staton, manager of the plant.