Festivals

Avant Garde Center for the Arts

Summer arts camps are scheduled for June 14-18 from 9am until 12pm daily at Mt. Dearborn United Methodist Church, 12 Calhoun Street, Great Falls, S.C.  $35 per student ages 5-18 includes daily snacks, camp t-shirt, and community open house on final camp day.  To register or to receive a scholarship application, call 803-287-7853 or email cmstevens@comporium.net.

You can sponsor a student for $25 donation to Hazle "Popeye" Jones Memorial Scholarship Fund.  Please call for more information or visit www.avantgardecenterforthearts.org.

Avant Garde Center for the Arts is located downtown in Great Falls, South Carolina.  While the physical location is in this riverside community, our services are not limited to the area as we seek to provide arts opportunities to underserved and diverse neighborhoods.  Avant Garde Center for the Arts advocates revitalization and creative economy while actively participating in long-range community goals.  The center at 621 Dearborn Street, Great Falls, S.C. is a cultural tourist destination featuring art exhibits, performances, festivals, and special events.  Classes and workshops are held on a regular basis and partnerships with other agencies provide youth training and arts in education programs.  Summer camps and after school programs offer a safe learning environment for arts in all disciplines while public art projects are designed to be inclusive for all residents.  We seek innovative approaches to community revitalization and welcome partnerships with service providers, sponsors, arts agencies, and individual citizens.

A Night in Greece

AUGUST 28: Enjoy dinner, dancing, and fun!  We'll have a buffet of authentic Greek cuisine, prepared by Cyclone Restaurant.  Learn traditional Greek dances while listening to a variety of Greek and American music.  View photographs from a recent trip to Greece!  More details will be announced soon.  7:00 PM at War Memorial Building on Main Street.

***Cyclone will host Greek dance lessons from 3-4 PM at the restaurant on Sundays, August 8, 15, and 22!

Farm Fair

Cotton Hill Farms
The Tenth Annual Farm Fair is October 9th this year. It begins at 10 AM and events take place through 6 PM that evening. Come to The Market and leave your car. Wagons will be leaving every ten minutes for the farm where most of the events will take place. Featured events include:

• Roman’s Revenge pumpkin chunk’n catapult (pumpkins hurled over distances greater than three football fields)!
• Featuring award winning pumpkin carver Steve Moss with live pumpkin carving demonstrations.
• Come hear the live Country Grass band.
• Enjoy food from local vendors on our shaded picnic tables by our farm pond.
• See us grind our grits and meal on a 1905 stone grist mill.
• Fun face painting for the kids at The Market.
• And a few surprises as well; check our website for updates

For more information please go to our website at  www.cottonhillsfarm.com

HILLarity Festival

Scheduled for October 16, Chester’s HILLarity Festival lives up to its name providing rides, food, and music on three stages up and down the hill at the heart of the city. Now in its 20th year, the festival promises a multi-cultural experience for everyone in the community, and features musical entertainment, street entertainers, food and craft vendors, children’s rides and activities, a bicycle clinic, commercial and information booths and more. A street dance and BBQ sale kicks off the event on Friday night, October 15. For more information, call City Hall at 803-581-2123.

Lando Days 2010

Lando Days 2010 is scheduled for October 2, 2010. Lando Days is an open to the public festival that includes: Car Show, Bake Sale, Museum Tours, Music, Children Games and Much More!!!

The Lando Manetta Mills History Center is a non profit organization that is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the people of Landor, South Carolina and the employees of Manetta Mills.

Battle of Beckhamville

Each year, Great Falls takes pride in re-enacting the Battle of Beckhamville, a historic battle that helped shift the tide of the Revolutionary War. Originally fought in June 1790 on the actual site of the event, the battle united a band of patriots against the British and loyalists gathered in what was then called “Alexander’s Old Field.” In addition to battle re-enactments, both days will include period vignettes and music, dancing, vendors and food. Specific details yet to be announced. Please contact Glinda Coleman at 803-482-2370 or at PO Box 215, Great Falls, SC 29055.

Celebrate Heritage in Great Falls, S.C.!

Get ready for the annual Great Falls Cultural and Heritage Celebration, a focus on cultural heritage, rich history, and abundant natural resources of this picturesque community situated on the banks of the Catawba River.  “Total Arts Fusion” opening event will be held Friday, September 25 from 7-10pm with festivities continuing Saturday, September 26 from 10am – 4pm indoors and outdoors at the War Memorial Building, 401 Dearborn Street, Great Falls, S.C. Performances, art exhibits and demonstrations, reptile & animal exhibits, children’s activities, kayak tours, hay rides, nature hikes, food, service agency and consumer information booths will entertain the entire family! 

On Friday evening, “Total Arts Fusion” begins by celebrating arts in all forms as guests place silent auction bids to benefit the Great Falls Home Town Association and Avant Garde Center for the Arts, non-profit agencies that focus on revitalization and community renewal. Music will be provided by York, SC hammered dulcimer player Susan Sherlock; ANANDA featuring pianist PJ Brunson of Charlotte, NC with violinist Laurie Neal of Rock Hill, SC; Chester Little Theatre musical scores; and jazz with Columbia, SC’s C. Neil Scott trio featuring Joseph Byron & Matt "Musician X" Falter.  Culinary delights will be provided compliments of local and regional chefs including Charlotte, NC’s “Dan the Pigman”.  Great Falls folk artist Raymond Gladden & painters Ray Douglas & Teresa Fields will have works on exhibit with Lancaster, SC sculptors Betsy Craig & Bob Doster, and Gullah painter Irene Tison, NC ceramicists Frank Vickery of Cullowhee & Barbara Quatrone of Greensboro; and painters Robin Zavada of Van Wyck, SC, Wanda Steppe of Rock Hill, SC, Storm Dancer of Fort Mill, SC.  Also exhibiting are SC photographers Bill Price of Forty Acre Rock, Heather Speer of Tega Cay, and C.Neil Scott of Columbia. Jewelry artists Linda Lucas of Lancaster, SC and Beth Wicker of Cheraw SC will exhibit with quilter Constance Larson of Fort Mill, SC.  Cowgirl Up Appaloosa Linda Huber of Phoenix, Arizona will have Native American works exhibited along with painter Fayedah Seyedin of Tehran, Iran.

On Saturday, “Total Arts Fusion” exhibits will be open and joined by USC-L’s Native American Collection, Winthrop University & Great Falls Home Town Associations Historical displays, Katawba Valley Land Trust & Landsford Canal natural resources exhibits, Olde English District Tourism Commission, Lancaster Fatherhood Project, Children’s Attention Home of York County, children’s activities with Creative Brushstrokes of Lancaster & Kimberly Bookman of  Florence, SC , face painting, hay rides, Dearborn Treasure & Kayak Tours, nature hikes, food vendors, demonstrations of blacksmithing, jewelry-making, painting, quilting, and more.  Performances on Saturday include acoustic/indie/folk rock by Great Falls’ Andrea Bailey, acoustic guitar with Lancaster HS band director John Rhodes, folk acoustic/rock with Amissville of Charlotte, NC, Rock Hill, SC singer & songwriter David Griffin, and Middle Eastern dance by Cassidy Switzer of Lancaster, SC.

Both days events are open and free to the public.  For additional information, please call Cherry Doster / Avant Garde Center for the Arts 803-287-7853 or email cmstevens@comporium.net.