By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The Crestline Harvest Festival opened Thursday afternoon, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the event.
Official festivities began with Crestline High School’s show choir the Royal Blue Express singing the Star Spangled Banner, followed by an invocation from Crestline United Methodist Church Pastor Becky Weamer.
After the national anthem and invocation, Crestline Mayor David Sharrock gave a speech welcoming everyone to the festival, and thanking the firefighters, police, street crew, vendors, and the volunteers for making the Harvest Festival possible.
Crestline Harvest Festival Committee Chair Clayton Herold spoke the same sentiment as Mayor Sharrock, while also sharing the good news that the festival reached its goal for $10,000 with a last minute donation.
Herold then turned the stage back over to Crestline choir teacher Julie Murphy’s show choir as they performed Dynamite by Taio Cruz, The River made famous by Garth Brooks, and The Middle by Jimmy Eat World for those in attendance
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After the Royal Blue Express finished, Herold announced that Thursday night’s headlining band No Edge Line’s would be performing from 7 to 11 p.m. Herold then proclaimed the opening ceremonies complete.
Herold was pleased with the turnout for the Harvest Fest’s opening.
. “We had a better turnout this year, one of the big reasons was the Royal Blue Express from Crestline High School, they came out and did a performance, sang our national anthem, and we had Pastor Becky from the first United Methodist Church in town do the invocation,” Herold said. “Yeah, it was a bigger turnout and hopefully next year it’s even double the size.”
Herold hinted at a possible returning favorite next year to bring more people to the opening ceremony.
“We have talked about bringing back the queen’s pageant,” Herold said. That is just something we are talking about using next year to bring a few more attendees.”
The Crestline Harvest Festival runs through Saturday with Santana tribute band Evil Ways closing out with a concert on the main festival stage.