Organizers of the Tebbetts Picnic hope the annual event, scheduled June 28-30, will be a chance to get to know your neighbors and get reacquainted with people you've lost touch with.
"We think this will be our best year yet," Tebbetts Community Club President Sam Richards said. "The whole idea is to find ways to get people to come and hopefully come back again some more. We have people who moved away, some as far as Arkansas, who were raised here and come back each year."
This year's activities feature bluegrass music, two bands, the second year for a children's tractor pull and best pie contest.
Richards said organizers are getting the word out early about this year's fiddler's contest, which is at noon the Sunday of the festival, hoping to see more contestants.
"We hope increasing the prize money will help," Richards said. "In the past three to four years when we've done this we've been getting around 25, which is what we got last year. With the increase in prize money this year, we hope to get maybe 40 contestants."
There's $1,600 in prize money for the fiddler's contest, with first, second and third places getting cash and a trophy.
The Bootleggers Band, scheduled to play on the festival's Friday night, and Desperate Times, playing on the Saturday night, have a lot of followers, Richards said. And this will be the first year for the picnic to feature a bluegrass band, which will play Saturday afternoon.
"We hope to have more farm machinery and antique tractors than last year, which was our first year to do that," Richards said. "We think we'll be up to 16 this year. There's no judging. The drivers get a food certificate. You can just show what you have and talk with the people who come by to look at it."
The picnic runs from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. June 28-29 and from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. June 30.
"There's no charge to come out to listen to the music or watch the contests," Richards said. "The only thing we charge for is food and drink."
Fore more details about the picnic, visit tebbetts.org.