The Chris Talley Bluegrass band is a featured artist at this year's Victorian Festival. The group will perform all three days from 1:30-5:30 p.m.

18th Annual Olden Days Festival this weekend
DOW - The Tri-County Antique Club will host its 18th annual “Olden Days” Festival August 23-24 at the club grounds, 23946 State Highway 3 in Dow.

The festival will feature exhibits of Allis Chalmers tractors and Maytag engines, will all makes welcome.

There will be displays of hit and miss engines, stationery steam engines, threshing machines, antique farm tools, saw mill, belted equipment demonstrations and other farm-related equipment.

The full weekend activities include arts and crafts, antiques, farm and tractor memorabilia, commercial vendors, new and used farm equipment parts, food concessions and special activities just for kids.

All exhibits open Saturday morning at 7 a.m. with breakfast of pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs. The schedule of activities for Saturday include threshing and sawmilling (10 a.m.), pedal tractor pull (11 a.m.), Parade of Power ( 2 p.m.) and the tractor pull and garden tractor pull (4 p.m.)

Live entertainment begins at noon until 4:30 p.m. both days and includes old time fiddle playing by Everett Vestel and Butch Purcell on Saturday and features the Hickory Grove Bluegrass band on Sunday.

Hickory Grove is a bluegrass band with “a little something different”, a mix of music and traditional bluegrass to classic rock tunes done “our way” with some older country songs. The group is made up with guitars, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and doghouse bass. Band members include Mike Groppel (guitar and vocals), Gary Kadell (guitar and vocals), Kenny Darr (fiddle and vocals), Byron Beiermann (upright bass), Adam Smith (banjo) and Aaron Steckel (mandolin and vocals).

Saturday is also Kid’s Day and will feature Maggie the Clown and a Straw Scramble at noon with prizes.

Skydivers will also “jump in” both days at noon. The free “Buckin’ Bronco” ride is also back. Vendors and food concessions will be open until 5 p.m. both days.

Breakfast on Sunday will be held at 7 p.m. followed by Cowboy Church at 9 a.m.

The Cowboy Church will feature southern gospel recording artists, The Chosen Ones from Manchester, who will appear in concert. Rev. Jerry Coborn from Carlinville will again deliver the message.

Threshing and sawmilling begins (10 a.m.) as does other field demonstrations. Tractor games and a rodeo begin (11 a.m.), complete with prizes. Also beginning at 11 a.m. is the antique truck and car show, which will also be featured this year in the Parade of Power at 2 p.m.

The raffle, which includes a beautiful handmade queen-sized quilt in the popular Log Cabin design in shades of blue, is donated by the club’s Auxiliary, is just one of the items to be part of the raffle. Also raffled will be, a collector’s edition Pedal Tractor (Minneapolis Moline) which was donated by Prairie Land Power and a whole processed hog donated by club members Bill and Julie Finkes. The raffle will be conducted at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Returning to the festival this year is a rendevous featuring the Free Trappers of the Piasa Territory. There are also lots of other heritage demonstrations, as well, including soap making and spinning.

Festival goers will notice improvements to the club grounds, especially the addition of a new pavilion in the vendor area, the completion of the blacksmith shop and additional work on the Town Hall building.

Gates will open each day at 6:30 p.m. All exhibitors welcome and are admittted free. General admission is $3 a day, under 12 free. Limited camping is available on site.

The Tri-County Antique Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving our agricultural history through the restoration of antique farm equipment. The club is committed to teaching future generations “how Grandma and Grandpa used to live” by conducting the Agricultural Enrichment Program which is a “hands on-hands in” activity which puts the history of farm life in rural Illinois within a context that students, ages preschool through sixth grade, can understand and appreciate.