Gourd Festival Casa Grande AZ Photos

Feb 2 - 4, 2012 Thur, Fri, Sat, The Gourd Festival at the Pinal County Fairgrounds AZ
Thurs - Drove to the penal county fairgrounds today to join the AZ chapter of RVW. The fairgrounds is hosting a gourd festival this weekend. It’s very windy. Mary Brumfield is also here. Pat and Colleen will arrive tomorrow. Mary and I visited the Casa Grande ruins. It was inhabited about 1300 AD by Native Americans. The visitor center has some very nice displays about how life was then and about the natural history of the area.
Fri - The Gourds at the festival are beautiful. Some are museum quality. There are many “master carvers” at the show.It's hard to get the sense of quality of the carving from these photos.

Sat - The main stage at the show has entertainment going on all day. A bluegrass band was playing and ask if anyone wanted to play washboard on a song. Some members of the AZ chapter who shall remain nameless, convinced me to volunteer. So I played the washboard. What a hoot that was and what a privilege to play with such a wonderful band.


Wash Board Judy

Then at 3:00 we watched the “running of the gourds”. There was junior and senior competition. The contestants made little race cars out of gourds and raced them down an inclined track. The kids were really excited when they won. What fun for the kids.





The running of the gourds