NORMAN — Mayor Kenneth Broadway couldn’t have asked for better weather for the town’s second annual Chick-n-Pick-n Music Jamboree.
The field behind Town Hall featured a mix of classic cars and tractors, with room to throw around a football.
Beside the Community Center, chicken and fish were deep-fried in cast iron wash pots and the Ellerbe Lions Club were near Town Hall offering hot dogs, drinks, candy — and brooms — for sale.
Broadway said the event had about as many vendors — selling a variety of items ranging from jewelry to wood carvings and metal signs to Sasquatch-shaped cookies — as last year.
There were also more bikers, he said, who turned out to hit the highway for the Bikers Blessing Ride, which raised money for the the Church of God of Prophecy church building fund.
Only two of the scheduled musical acts actually performed.
The Long Gone Bluegrass Band — featuring Ellerbe natives Luke Vuncannon and Joe Grooms on guitar and banjo, respectively, and Randolph County’s Daniel Luther on mandolin and Jim Simpson on bass — kicked things off at the Norman Stage around 11 a.m.
Next up was Jukebox Rehab, a Winston-Salem-based four-piece country band whose blended harmonies mixed together on acoustic covers and a few original songs.
The band was recently nominated for Best Musician/Band as part of the 2019 Carolina’s Finest Awards, presented by Carolina Country magazine.
Candor native and singer/songwriter Burke Long was scheduled to close out the event but the crowd started to dwindle.
Norman’s spring festival was competing with several other area events, including the inaugural Hinson Lake Disc Golf Tournament in Rockingham, Broadway said.
He’s hoping to draw a much larger crowd for Norman Fest in the fall, with Jim Quick and Coastline as the headlining act.
“All in all,” he added,”a beautiful day.”
