Tryon came alive with the excitement of spring during the April Fool’s Festival hosted by the Tryon Downtown Development Association this weekend.
Dancers swung their partners around to kick off the event with a street dance Friday night on McCown Street just above the railroad tracks. Dancers showed off their skills in everything from the shag to the electric slide.
Then Saturday, April 2 filled the rest of downtown with spring revelers.
Event co-chairs Kathleen Carson and Linda Byington said they were thrilled with the beautiful weather and attendance numbers.
“I think the festival just keeps building and of course we added more things to do so that people who came to town stayed in town,” Carson said. “This is definitely part of TDDA’s mission.”
Organizers bolstered this year’s festivities with additional elements on Saturday such as vendor booths lining the Depot parking lot. Carson said this provided local nonprofits an opportunity to interact with the community. On hand for the event were Thermal Belt Outreach Ministry, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Hospice of the Carolina Foothills and the Mill Spring Agricultural Center.
The ag center also brought along several farmer’s market vendors offering their goods to attendees. Meanwhile, people followed the savory smells of barbecue, woodfired pizza and hot dogs to find ways to ward off hunger.
Entertaining the crowd as they perused booths were Ian Harrod, Lori Corda and Vinny Corda, all members of the band Ride With Daddy.
“We had a day full of wonderful things – I couldn’t be more pleased,” Carson said. “I think the people that came had a very good time.”
The Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival’s teams swept the Outhouse Races this year. Team members included: (youth-division) Dylan Feagan, Alexis McGraw, Caitlin Britton, Samantha Metcalf and Haley Kropp; (adult-division) Dennis Nagle Sr., Dennis Nagle Jr., Jeff Hubbard, Mike Rose and Colby Rose.
The Trashion Show, featuring recycled fashions of all types, drew competitors in several categories.
Winners included Scout Harmon in the youngest age group. Harmon fashioned a wedding dress out of garbage bags, with a grocery bag as her veil. Coming in second and third place were Reese Alley and Ava Marino, whose outfits included caution-orange duct tape and balloons.

Rachel Vining won the older teens group. Vining created a dress covered in Dum-Dum wrappers that included sleeves made from the Dum-Dum candy bags. Meanwhile Hunter Metcalf won both second and third place in the group. One of her two dresses was crafted out of neon blue duct tape and newspaper. Her second dress was made out of a trash bag and zebra-print wrapping paper. Metcalf even created a clutch to go with each outfit.
Judges for the event were Chris Huffstettler, Gail Muir and Margaret Curtis.
The weekend events culminated with the Masquerade Ball hosted by Thompson Landscaping. The ball sold 90 tickets at $25 a pop, with all the funds from the event going to fund future TDDA events and needs.