RISON - With the 2025 Pioneer Crafts Festival just weeks away, one of the organizers and current Vice President of the Pioneer Village Malinda Berry, joined the latest episode of Free Range Conversations to share what attendees can expect.
The festival is set for Saturday, April 19 kicking off at 9 a.m. at Rison’s historic Pioneer Village.
The night prior will feature a Beans and Greens Supper at 5 p.m.
Berry encourages the public to come out and enjoy the dinner while vendors set up and mingle with guests in advance of the festivities on Saturday.
“We have an awful lot of fans that come in and have our beans and greens,” said Berry. “Trenna Kemp, who is an absolutely fabulous cook, is taking care of our beans and greens supper.”
Demonstrators at the event will showcase skills from blacksmith to arrowhead making.
Berry said there are many skills from days gone by that could be learned by anyone, young or old.
This year marks a second effort to revive the festival. The 2024 event saw success with the Friday night supper, but rain and storms hampered the craft festival on Saturday.
Berry is hopeful the weather will be different this year.
A full lineup of participating vendors and demonstrators will be made available next week. Organizers are still taking applications for both.
Anyone interested in demonstrating or setting up a vendor booth can call Marty Bowlin at (870) 540-7545, Sharon Gray at (870) 692-3130 or Malinda Berry at (520) 490-5903.
The Pioneer Village is now run by the Pioneer Village, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit group made up completely with volunteers. The Pioneer Village operates the facility under a lease agreement with the City of Rison.
Taking time to discuss the storied history of the festival, podcast co-host Roy Phillips recalled years where thousands of people came to Rison for the weekend.
In fact, he said there would be so many people they had to operate shuttles to transport people to the Pioneer Village, which was then known as the Cleveland County Fairgrounds.
Looking back at its peak, the festival was a two-day event that attracted dozens of crafters showing off and selling their hand-made creations.
However, as mass-produced crafts began to emerge within the industry, the number of people making hand-crafted items began to decline and so did attendance to craft festivals. In its last five years of existence, the Pioneer Crafts Festival had been reduced to a one-day event before event organizer Betty Lisemby finally decided to end it after its 38th season in 2009. She cited the economic conditions at that time as being a major factor as crafters had cut back on their crafts and shoppers were holding onto their money rather than buying anything.
After finding success with other events and a resurgence of interest in the restored structures of the property, The Pioneer Village is again setting its sights on reviving the Pioneer Crafts Festival.
During the podcast, Berry shared that the group of volunteers has made significant progress in over the past few years.
Three of the historic structures - the Mt. Olivet Methodist Church, the McMurtrey House and the Mercantile - are now climate controlled with both air conditioning and heating. In addition to this, the addition of the Beard House has brought new attention to the Village. This was evident after the recent visit from a guest from California who made a trip just to see the house.
Another new renovation is underway now as an old jail cell is being restructured into a jailhouse replica under the direction of volunteer John Fryar. Berry said she hopes this project will be completed before the April 19 festival.
She also expressed her desires to see a one-room school house added to the property one day - joining a church, mercantile, post office, barn, cabin and houses in place.
On the subject of schools, many teachers have brought students to tour the historic buildings for “Pioneer Days,” which can be scheduled for any school wanting to share an educational experience with students.
“It’s important they don’t forget where we came from,” Berry said.
Berry also discussed with the hosts that included Britt Talent and Douglas Boultinghouse of the group's overall goal to make the Pioneer Village into an event venue suitable for weddings, reunions and other small group meetings.
The full episode is streaming now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and ClevelandCountyHerald.com, which includes background information from Phillips on some of the buildings and where they once stood in Rison, as well as future events Berry and Boultinghouse discuss planned for the Village.