This Saturday and Sunday, artists throughout the country will gather in Greenville, Ohio to display artwork by the thousands. Their canvas of choice? Gourds.
At the 49th annual Ohio Gourd Show, gourd artists will compete for the blue ribbon award title. The event features a gourd sale, gourd-related crafts for children and live music by Ogade, an Oxford, Ohio-based band that plays gourd instruments.
"If you haven’t been to a gourd show, you have to go,” said Lois Smith, publicity chair at the Ohio Gourd Society, which is sponsoring the event.
Ohio Gourd Society President Anna Miller said at least 4,000 attendees comprised last year’s event. While there is no estimate for this year’s attendance, Smith said the venue is sure to be teeming with thousands of gourds.
“I don’t know how the growing season is going this year. Mine did not go so well. I’m expecting to see a fair amount of fresh gourds,” said Abraham Martin, 1st Vice President of the Ohio Gourd Society.
The event, which runs 9 a.m. to 5p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, will showcase several gourd classes – fresh, dried and artistic.
Smith said each class will contain various categories. The artistic gourd display alone has over 100 separate categories.
“You can’t imagine an old dried gourd and the beautiful things [the artists] can make out of them,” Smith said.
Adult admission to the Ohio Gourd Show is $3 with no charge for children.
“We just invite you all to come and prepare to be surprised,” Smith said. “If you’ve never been to something like this, you’ll be amazed.”
