Blackberry Festival: Two-time blackberry eating contest victor promises 2025 win

Jul. 15—The 21st annual Blackberry Festival was held by the City of Lenoir Friday and Saturday, July 12 and 13, starting at 5 p.m. on Friday in Downtown Lenoir. The festival was marked by the bustle of crowds, the presence of more than 200 vendors and organizations, loud music and blazing heat. The festival ran until 9 p.m. Saturday evening.

Some of the businesses and booths that appeared belonged to familiar Lenoir and Caldwell organizations like the Senior Center, Rotary Club, N.C. State Cooperative Extension and Unity Park, Caldwell Pathways, the Heritage Museum and Daughters of the American Revolution alongside business from across the area, both in and outside Caldwell County, including local restraints and locally owned franchises, farmers, businesses and craftspersons. Also in attendance were festival traditions such as face painting, blow up games, a trampoline and climbing wall, and food trucks sending the smell of fry oil and funnel cakes through the downtown streets.

Living Lenoir 2025 took the festival as an opportunity to conduct surveys and collect feedback that will assist the city in developing a new comprehensive plan. Those who missed the survey may find it at lenoir2045.com.

Servpro's annual blackberry eating contest was held at 12 p.m. near the downtown stage, where a handful of participants from three age groups competed to see once and for all who could eat blackberries the quickest. Within the 8-10 group, 8 year old Carson Phillips won by a considerable lead.

"Let's go!" Phillips said while standing next to his sister. "I hope everybody has a great time here at the Blackberry Festival," Phillips said enthusiastically, assuring that his sister, Serena, agreed and didn't need to be quoted too.

Following immediately after was the 11-15 group, which competed with the added handicap that the competitors could only use one hand. Bradley Miller, 14, took his second consecutive victory and promised another in 2025. The 16 and up group was forced to compete with their hands tied behind their backs, and had whipped cream added to their blackberries. Of this group, Michael Chisholm won, and used his victory speech to encourage veterans to sign up for their benefits.

Following the contest was the Blackberry Cobbler Parade at 1 p.m., in which participants carried streamers and puppets to escort more than 250 blackberry cobblers up N. Main Street to Ashe Avenue, then back down to downtown square. Volunteers worked to measure out cobbler samples for the festival's guests.

The festival featured live music from a number of artists and groups, including the Never B's, Kings of Noise, Darren Bryant, Blu Waters Trio and Chasing Phoenix. All performances were held on the downtown stage.

A light shower toward the beginning of the festivities on Friday kept the heat manageable for the evening, but Saturday's heat hovered in the low to mid 90s with only a few brief breaks from full sun. In spite of this, Lenoir Fire Chief Norman Staines said that there were significantly fewer cases of heat-related illness compared to last year. Staines said that, thanks to better and more regular hydration and a community effort to look after one another, there were no cases of heat illness at the festival that required an ambulance response. In total, around 10 cases mild enough to be treated on-site with shade, rest and water.

"Everybody's been really receptive," Staines said. "Everybody's been good about taking care of people."