ROBBINS — The Town of Robbins will host the 67th Robbins Farmers Day event starting Thursday, August 4, and it will run through Saturday, August 6 in downtown Robbins.
Robbins Farmers Day is a weekend-long event that kicks off with a 5K race, and features live music, demonstrations, carnival rides, fireworks, a variety of food and craft stalls, and more, all culminating in the Robbins Farmers Day Parade on Saturday.
The festival begins on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. featuring “Gospel on the Depot Stage,” with live music being provided by Pioneers and Potters Will running until 9 p.m. The Farmers Day 5km run/walk also begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, with registration opening up an hour and a half beforehand.
The entry fee for the run is $15 per competitor, with proceeds going to support the Robbins Fire Rescue Association, and there will be a half-mile kids fun run available for children 12-and-under 20 minutes prior to the 5K.
On Friday, the festival runs from 6 p.m. to midnight, with carnival rides and midway opening for those hours. Live music will be provided by Whiskey Pines, William Willard, Sand Band & Terri Gore, and Hindsight, and the Fire Fighter Challenge will begin at 7 p.m. There will also be a mid-town fireworks show starting at 10:15.
The festival will then run from 9 a.m. to midnight on Saturday night, with many of the same features available as the previous night. In addition, an antique tractor and farm equipment show will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, and live music will also be provided, featuring music from Molded Clay, Webb Family, LeBeaus, and Joe Frye & The Low Down Dirty Heathens.
The pinnacle event of the festival, the Robbins Day Farmers Parade, will take place starting at 11 a.m Saturday on Middleton Street.
The Robbins Farmers Day Parade is an annual tradition in Moore County that pays homage to the old-timey and rustic tradition of a Saturday wagon ride into town.
Started in 1955 by Curtis Hussey, whose family has served as “Wagonmaster” at the head of the parade for three generations, the parade has grown from just a handful of wagons to featuring hundreds of entrants each year.
This year’s “Wagonmaster” is grandson Robert Hussey who has been leading the parade in his covered wagon since 2017.
The parade also gives out prizes to participants in 21 different categories ranging from Best Dressed to trophies for the best and even oddest rigs to even medals for the animals pulling the wagons, such as horses, mules, and donkeys.
There will also be a parade of tractors starting at 4 p.m. with trophy presentations at the end for them as well.
Festival goers who wish to watch the parade are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs for the event.
Robbins Farmers Day is a big deal in Moore County, with last year’s festival bringing in over 30,000 attendees, nearly 20 times the size of Robbins’ population, and this year is expected to bring in just as many, if not more.
What started as a small-time tradition honoring agricultural roots 67 years ago has turned into one of the hottest annual events of the summer for North Carolina. Everyone is encouraged to bring their “wagons” down to see just the rustic charm that the festival has to offer.
