Friday, July 26, 2013

Festival of the Peach: Candor Is the Scene

[Note: This post, prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.] 

Communities that spread over a multi-county area often unite each year for a common celebration. For the N.C. peach community, that event occurs on the third Saturday in July in Candor, a small town in Montgomery Country that brings everyone in the peach-growing Sandhills region together. Although Candor is the home of fewer than 900 residents, it hosts the N.C. Peach Festival because the peach is so important to its identity and its way of life.

The festival brings out peach
costumes as music is played.
Peaches are clearly the star attraction. Boxes, baskets, and bags of freshly picked fruit are sold on sides of streets, from the back of trucks, and at stands of service organizations and neighboring growers. A common sight is a heavy box of peaches being carried by a person navigating through the throngs of streetgoers.




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