THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050424
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KIPTOPEKE LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Could rain dampen the Harvest Festival at Sunset Beach? No way!
More than 3,200 people turned out Wednesday with umbrellas, raincoats, and appetites that could only be quenched by all-you-can-eat soft shell crabs.
Or oysters wrapped in bacon. Or crab cakes, barbecue, chili and sweet potato pie.
``As soon as the first round wears off, I'm going back for seconds,'' said Mark Freeze of Silver Beach. Freeze is a veteran of all three Harvest Festivals - two of which were sunny and warm.
``It's a little damp,'' said Freeze, standing in the rain. ``But other than that, everyone's having a good time. The food is great.''
More than 250 volunteers, including 85 students from Northampton High School, staffed the festival. Local restaurateurs ran the food booths.
``We don't pay a penny's worth of labor,'' said Rick Hubbard of Eastville, who helped recruit volunteers. Officials estimate that 70 percent of the festival tickets are bought by local residents who don't want to miss the season's biggest social event.
Festival staffers expected to serve 4,000 soft shell crabs, 100 gallons of clam chowder, 4,000 crab cakes, 4,000 ears of corn, 250 sweet potato pies, 60 gallons of chili, and 6,000 sweet potato biscuits filled with ham. Add to that an ocean of soda and beer, plus music by the Regular Guyz of Virginia Beach, and you have a party.
``I didn't even know it was raining,'' said Ray Haynie, one of the organizers. Haynie is the proprietor of the Cape Center, a well-known restaurant south of Cape Charles.
The Harvest Festival was started three years ago as an attempt by the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce to introduce people to Northampton County and Eastern Shore products. This year, tickets went on sale May 1 and were sold out by July.
Haynie said the Harvest Festival crowd was the largest group of people he had ever seen assembled in Northampton County. More legislative staffers requested tickets this year, he said, and as many as nine busloads of seafood lovers came from Norfolk.
``Tell people if they want to go next year to buy their tickets May 1 when they go on sale,'' said Haynie. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/
Staff photos
Ruthie McNamara sprinkles flour on soft shell crabs in the Someplace
Else tent at the annual Harvest Festival on the Eastern Shore
Wednesday. Someplace Else is a restaurant on Route 13 in Cape
Charles. Local restaurateurs ran the food booths.
Leli Pond and her husband, Mark, of Virginia Beach went to the
Eastern Shore Wednesday for the annual Harvest Festival at Sunset
Beach. The Ponds are enjoying soft shell crab sandwiches. Tickets to
the annual event went on sale May 1 and were sold out by July.
by CNB