By LAINE GRIFFIN
Daily News-Record 9/16/19
BROADWAY — The sun came out and the 55th annual Broadway-Timberville Autumn Festival and Antique Car Show took place Saturday without a hitch.
The festival was created to highlight what the local businesses have to offer, while also bringing shoppers in from out of the area and kicking off the fall season.
There were more than 150 food, craft, artisan and retail vendors strung along Main Street, along with more than 100 classic cars available to view.
Some local businesses in attendance were Sugarmama bakery, Olive Oil Soap Co., Ricks Handcrafted Pens, Glass by Manda and the popular Henderson’s pork rinds, which is a family-owned business that travels from festival to festival to sell its product.
How it’s made is smoked pork pieces are cooked in 400-degree soybean oil and either covered in barbecue flavoring, salt and vinegar, or kept plain.
Tammy Rhinehart, one of the family members involved in the business, said Henderson’s has been coming to the Broadway-Timberville Autumn Festival for close to 20 years.
“I like coming every year because the people are great,” she said. “We have many, many regulars that come back for our product every year.”
Of all the flavors, Rhinehart said the barbecue is the favorite.
Bobby Shappbll, 26, and Rachel Naradko, 23, a 2018 graduate in health science from James Madison University, came from Pennsylvania for a JMU football game that evening but decided to stop by the fall festival first.
“Ever since I moved out of the Valley last year, I’ve been telling Bobby I want to move back,” she said. “I loved being here and being a part of things like this.”
Naradko had bought a bandana for her sister’s dog and said she was just looking forward to walking around the festival with her boyfriend to see what type of vendors there were.
“It’s so fun to be back here because I just love the local hospitality,” she said. “People that don’t know you just come up to talk to you and everyone is just so friendly. It’s not that way up North.”
She said she has missed living in the area since she left and now calls it home.
“This festival seems really fun and the people really are nice here,” Shapbll said. “I’d definitely come back to the festival again next year.”
Charlie and Barbara Mitchell have been attending the festival for around 10 years, and there’s a number of reasons it keeps bringing them back.
“For me it’s the food — I love the food here,” Charlie Mitchell said as he held a bag of hard candy in his hands.
For Barbara, she enjoys seeing all the different vendors that line the street.
“It’s interesting to see the ideas people come up with to sell, and I enjoy supporting them,” she said.
But for both of the Mitchells, attending the festival is also about seeing good friends and catching up, even if they just saw them a few days ago.
The Mitchells have lived in Broadway for the last four years but had been coming prior to that when they lived in Richmond because they had family who lived in the area.
“This festival has always been so fun and we love the camaraderie here,” Barbara said. “This is home for us and the festival is something we look forward to every year.”
The antique car show was the highlight for Mark Saint Myers of Front Royal, who was attending the festival for the first time with Sherry Tutundji.
Myers said he’s been to over 100 car shows.
“I’d been going to car shows since I was a kid,” he said. “I always liked the hot rods and older modeled cars.”
He said he has been working on fixing up a 1968 Mustang himself for about a year now, but has a long ways to go.
“It’s nice being able to have antique car shows all around for all the people who really enjoy that type of thing,” he said. “I really like what I’ve seen so far here.”