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The S.C. Peach Festival starts at 10 a.m. with the established Peach Dessert Contest on the front porch of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce. Contestants and onlookers may listen to music performed by RC and the Moonpies as they wait for the judges to determine a winner in the usual dessert challenge.

On Friday, other festival favorites kick off, such as the carnival rides and the Kansas City-sanctioned barbecue cook off. About 50 barbecue teams from all over the country are competing.

More activenesses are planned for Saturday morning beginning with a 5k/10k sanctioned road race and 1-mile walk and a parade downtown. Festival-goers also will be capable to buy and receive pleasure from tons of peaches in some guises, from peach ice cream to peach preserves. The night ends with the annual Peach Beach concert featuring the Fantastic Shakers and Fabulous Kayss at Lake Welchel.

“We have a lot planned this year,” said Kayla Robbs, executive conductor of the chamber. “We have more of just with regards to everything and numerous new fun activities.”

What’s new this year?

A festival spotlight is the LEGO? Experience Tour. The LEGO company has launched two tours traveling throughout the country to give parents and their children a prospect to play and be originative with the widely known and esteemed building blocks. The LEGO exhibition will be set up in a tent as part of the Family Fun Fest in downtown.

“Children will be capable to go into the tent and build with the Legos, and there will be ambassadors on hand to aid them,” Robb said.

“We are in truth excessively affected emotionally to have this exhibition because we are one of only 14 festivals throughout the region to have it. The Legos are new and improved, and the company is doing more and more with them. Kids will be competent to build and play with them and it is all free.”

Festival-goers will also see motorcycles on display as share of the classic car show from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The motorcycles were added this year.

Other performances include midget wrestling from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday downtown.

Festivities carry on next week with the S.C. Peach Festival Pageant July 22 in Fullerton Auditorium at Limestone College. Festival organizers hope the pageant’s queen will be capable to compete in the Miss South Carolina pageant next year.

Stuck in the mud

The final event is an old-fashioned mud bog July 23 at Lake Welchel. The Board of Public Works will transform the lake side into a mud bog where truck drivers will compete to see who may make it the furthermost in the huge mud pit.

“We actually do look at what our community wants and undertake to do what our community wants,” said Cherie Winkler, a fellow member of the Peach Festival board of governors. “All of us (board of governors) live in the community. People said they wanted the mug bog back, so we brought that back. We have the firstborn qualifier of the Miss South Carolina pageant. Our community buys into what we are doing, and we have a potpourri of events.”

S.C. Peach Festival schedule

Today

9 a.m. — Festival kicks off with WZZQ 104.3 FM remote at Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, 225 S.. Limestone St.

10 a.m. to noon — Dessert contest at the chamber

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. — RC and the Moonpies perform

7:30 p.m. — New Talent Night at Fullerton Auditorium, Limestone College, 1115 College Drive

Friday

9 a.m. — Remote from WZZQ

9 a.m. and 1 p.m. — Peach Festival Golf Tournament, Country Club of Gaffney, Union Highway

5 to 11 p.m. — Family Fun Fest with food, music, arts and crafts, LEGO exhibition, corn hole and carnival rides, downtown at 203 N. Limestone St.

All day — Kansas City-sanctioned BBQ Cook-Off, near the festival

Saturday

7:30 a.m. — 5 and 10 K sanctioned road race and 1-mile walk at O’Neil and Griffin streets

10 a.m. — S.C. Peach Festival Parade at Limestone Street downtown

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Family Fun Fest proceeds at 203 N. Limestone St.

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Classic car and motorcycle at the festival area

Noon to 2 p.m. — Midget wrestling exhibition at the festival area

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Barbecue cook-off contest at the festival area

7 p.m. — Peach Beach featuring the Fantastic Shakers and Fabulous Kays at Lake Welchel

July 22

7:30 p.m. — S.C. Peach Festival Pageant Fullerton Auditorium at Limestone College, 1115 College Drive

July 23

7 p.m.— Mud Bog at 416 Lake Welchel