One of southern West Virginia’s biggest summer celebrations is just a few weeks away, and organizers of the 2008 edition of the Friends of Coal Auto Fair say they are expecting another fun-filled weekend.
“It’s going to be a great weekend,” Jay Rist, marketing and membership director for the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA, says.
The event is scheduled July 18-20 at the Y’s Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex.
This is the fifth year for the auto fair, which was known as the Whitewater Run Car Show before Friends of Coal came on board in 2006.
Beckley Register Herald - Sunday, June 29, 2008: One of southern West Virginia’s biggest summer celebrations is just a few weeks away, and organizers of the 2008 edition of the Friends of Coal Auto Fair say they are expecting another fun-filled weekend.
“It’s going to be a great weekend,” Jay Rist, marketing and membership director for the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA, says.
The event is scheduled July 18-20 at the Y’s Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex.
This is the fifth year for the auto fair, which was known as the Whitewater Run Car Show before Friends of Coal came on board in 2006.
Rist says a full weekend of activities are on tap. The event gets under way at 10 a.m. July 18 with vehicle registration. The opening-day events will include food and specialty vendors, a flea market, car corral, swap meet, children’s games, arts and crafts and live entertainment. A carnival, courtesy of Meyer’s Entertainment, will open at 5 p.m. with rides and games for both adults and children. At 6 p.m., participating cars will join in two cruises into uptown Beckley to take part in the Beckley Renaissance Car Show, which will include food and feature entertainment from oldies group One-A-Chord.
In addition to checking out the cars and enjoying the live music, Rist says, visitors will also have the opportunity to win door prizes during the 9 p.m. awards presentation. Rist says he expects July 19, the second day of the fair, which has been dubbed Friends of Coal Day, to be the busiest of the weekend with the fairgrounds opening 8 a.m. with vehicle registration.
All activities from July 18 will resume the next morning and the carnival will run in two sessions that day from noon to 4 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. In the past, the carnival has been a Saturday afternoon activity only. “We’re excited to have the carnival all three days,” Rist said, adding a free bicycle, courtesy of Ride N Slide Sports and Creager Tire, will be given away during each session of the carnival.
Three Friends of Coal spokesmen — former West Virginia University football coach Don Nehlen, former Marshall football coach and current Virginia assistant head coach Bob Pruett and Jeremy Starks of the BassMaster Elite Series — will take the stage at 7 p.m. July 19 for a special FOC presentation.
The evening’s main attraction, a concert featuring country music star Randy Travis, along with local favorite Taylor Made, will follow. “We’re excited to have Randy,” Rist said. “He has a new album coming out in July and we’re looking forward to having him, along with Taylor Made, at the show.” The concert stage, Y CEO Jim Gilchrist says, will be higher this year, allowing for a better view of the show. Also, platinum sponsor Kanawha Eagle has arranged for two 10 1/2-by-14-foot television screens to be suspended on both sides of the stage so concert-goers should be able to see what Gilchrist referred to as “larger than life” performances.
As they have the past two years, members of the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team will jump in prior to the start of the show and the second day’s activities will close with a fireworks show at the conclusion of the concert.
Events for the July 20, the final day of the fair, will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the carnival opening at 10 a.m., an all-denominations church service scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and the awards presentation at noon.