Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050066
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Once again, it's Steppin' Out time.
Fourteen years running, the Downtown Merchants Association-sponsored festival revs up, with plenty to do from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and Saturday. Like years past, the booths of vendors, artists and craftspeople will line College and Draper avenues and, like last year, Main Street as well.
Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin will play the blues at 2:15 p.m. today, as one of 20 acts that will be cranking out funk, folk, pop and rock from noon until dark both days. There will be children's games on Henderson lawn Saturday afternoon, food and good deals to find on merchandise.
And there will be people.
"It's just like a big street party," said Robert Tuckwiller, a Newport artist who's been displaying and selling his efforts at Steppin' Out for a decade. "You got hippies and yuppies and professors and students. It's a real wide mixture of people."
Tuckwiller will be set up along Draper Avenue, sporting a lantern to stay open late in the evening and doing his best to stay as cool as possible during the day. "I always get under a real nice shade tree 'cause it always gets real hot," he said.
Nancynne Willoughby, president of the merchants association, defied the weather gods, vowing that "there will be no rain this year." (Last year, when the festival ran three days, such was not the case one of the days.)
For the merchants association, fair skies this weekend mean a lot. The group collects money through the sale of Steppin' Out T-shirts and commissions from vendors' booths.
"It is our main fund-raiser and we absolutely need it," said Mary Riley, chairwoman of the arts and crafts committee and owner of Mainstreet Bazaar.
The event returns to its traditional two days this year. Last year it ran for three, trying to take advantage of the Family Motor Coach Convention that Blacksburg was playing host to at the time.
"Three days was real hard on us," Riley said.
The money the group takes in, as much as $5,000, goes toward two scholarships the group funds, as well as other projects, Willoughby said. Two years ago, the association donated $5,000 to the Hand-in-Hand Playground. Much of the money taken in last year and this year will go toward building a shelter for the town's farmers' market.
So whether you're a Steppin' Out veteran or new to town, check it out. Why? Just ask Tuckwiller.
"You don't see very many people who aren't happy."
by CNB