Linda and I participated in every Weissport Redneck Festival since the first one in 2008. In that year we set up a booth entitled “Rednecks for Obama,” and we received lots of favorable publicity. Many people wanted their pictures taken next to our sign. Families were in evidence. The Republicans did not participate.
In subsequent years the Festival changed. Bikers were more and more in evidence; the Festival began to advertise at biker bars. Families were scarce. Confederate flags were ubiquitous. (If you were flying one of those flags, “ubiquitous” means everywhere.)
The Carbon 9/12ers have set up a booth for the second year in a row featuring a lottery for assault rifles. The Republican Party has been given space near the beer tent and close to the entertainment, while the “Yellar Dog Democrats,” which is what we were calling our booth, is relegated to the far end of the park just in front of the toilets. The only people who passed by seemed to be in a hurry.
Today I maintained our booth from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. I displayed a bulletin board with pictures on interesting T-Shirts from previous festivals, which got some attention, but I would have registered more voters sitting in front of Dollar General or Giant. Basically, I wasted both the vendor fee and my time.
So tomorrow, although the Redneck Festival will go on until the evening, I’m going over after church and closing down our booth.
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