Fun weekend in Fredonia
Hose race delights those at Farm Festival
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By Jordan W. Patterson
OBSERVER Correspondent
Fredonia was vibrant and alive Friday afternoon with live music, games and the smell of fried food.
The Farm Festival is back.
One of the more popular events took place on Center Road -- the Annual Hose Race, hosted by the local fire departments. The object of the game is to connect an entire hose to the fire hydrant close by and then hustle to the other side of the street and spray at a target. For Fredonia Fire Chief Kurt Maytum, the event is just for fun, but it simultaneously showcases what firemen have to go through when putting out a fire.
"We're here tonight, having a great time with the hose race," Maytum said.
People from all around gathered on both sides of Center Street to watch firemen and women race down the street with a heavy hose cradled in their arms. Occasionally, they didn't make it. But the majority of the time, the target was sprayed with a vast amount of water spewing out of the end of the hose and trigger a red flag to spring up, indicating they had finished.
"Well, this is really just for fun," Maytum said. "But it does actually show everybody what we actually do when we get to the scene; getting the fire hose and connecting it to the hydrant and that kind of stuff. So, it is actually a functional thing but this is for fun."
Admittedly, Maytum was a little disappointed with the number of people who showed up for the hose race.
"We're a little bit disappointed we didn't have a little bit bigger turn out," Maytum said. "There are a lot of local departments around the area that were invited and we only wound up with two teams."Those two teams were the East Town of Dunkirk Fire Department and the Fredonia Fire Department. A third team was created simply with various people who were there attending the event and familiar with the fire department.
"The Farm Festival, in general, has been really good, so far," Maytum said. "The fire department has a booth here on the ground for fire prevention and recruitment."
The park was packed with numerous different tents that ranged from arts and crafts related items to rabbits.
Tucked away from the park, across Church Street was Damian Skal from Butler, Pennsylvania. People could notice his giant bear sculpture position in the front of his tent. This is Skal's second time being at the Farm Festival. Although, Skal thought the Farm Festival would be more agriculture related, he plans on returning a third time next year.
The biggest sculpture that Skal was working on had about two to three weeks worth of work put into it. All of his sculpture are primarily sculpted by chainsaw and then about 10 percent of the work is then sanding down with other tools. Skal was also working on sculptures in front of people. He will be at the Farm Festival all weekend.
Skal's favorite aspect of the festival was how close and centered everything was.
"Not too many towns have these centers at the middle of the town," Skal said of Fredonia.
The Farm Festival will continue through Sunday and be capped off with a parade.