After COVID-19 canceled Hillbilly Days for 2 years, the Pikeville festival returns

Hillbilly Days in Pikeville returned with laughter from kids, churns of the carnival rides, horns blasting from old trucks, live music playing and sips from large lemonade cups with melting ice.

Streets of downtown Pikeville filled up again for the three-day festival after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The excitement for Hillbilly Days was back bringing an estimated 120,000 visitors to the Eastern Kentucky city, even as temperatures soared to the high 80s on Friday and Saturday.

Tony Tackett, Pike County Tourism director, said the Hillbilly Days organizers had a 2022 date planned, but they were “waiting to cancel,” if needed. Canceling last year’s festival was disheartening, but it was the right decision, because the state’s COVID cases were too high, he said.

“We set a date and then it had to be canceled because we understood the majority of Kentucky was in the orange, and we were moving in the red,” Tackett said. “The goal was how do you harbor that and not fuel it. The only way you could fuel it was group settings.”

This year, Tackett felt confident Hillbilly Days would be able to return once cases were declining in early February across Kentucky and in West Virginia.

Tackett had a bit of anxiety leading up to the festival, but as soon as visitors poured into downtown, those feelings faded.

“Just so grateful and happy that the floodgates have opened not only travel but for them to have the experience that they’re used to,” he said.

The Hillbilly Festival began in 1977 when Shady Grady Kinney and “Dirty Ear” Howard Stratton hosted a small parade to raise money for Shriners Children’s Lexington. The founders wanted the event to be the first of the year, in April, even though the weather is often unpredictable. In past years, it has rained or even snowed.

After the first Hillbilly Days, attendees returned, growing the festival more and more every year.

Kinney’s son, Jimmy Kinney, now continues the legacy of Hillbilly Days. In 2020, he was heartbroken the festival was canceled. On the day of what would have been the Saturday parade, Kinney drove his scooter alone down Hambley Boulevard.

“I did my own little parade from here to there, and there was no one here to watch it,” Kinney said. “ I said at least we did have a parade. We went from the largest, most tandem parade of vehicles to the smallest.”

Kinney said it is now time to get back to reality and kick the shoe down the road with the pandemic.

Kinney’s favorite part of the parade is the people. He enjoys talking to visitors who have traveled from different states, seeing kids enjoy the parade and mingling with the crowd. Kinney, too, hopes Hillbilly Days raises awareness of Shriners and helps children who need specialized care for orthopedic conditions.

The parade’s grand marshal was a Shriner’s hospital patient.

Kimper residents Brian and Dana Pinion brought their 9-year-old daughter Christalyn to Hillbilly Days on Friday and Saturday. Brian, who has been attending the festival since he was a child, said Hillbilly Days keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. He enjoys seeing old friends from high school and co-workers. Christalyn was excited to be back in a crowd and be free to breathe without the worries of social distancing, and also to ride the Zipper, an amusement park ride.

Tammie and Charles Michael Lipscomb, of Covington, came to Hillbilly Days for the fourth time. The couple enjoys going to festivals and concerts in the park. They were happy to be able to get out after being cooped up for the last couple of years.

Tim and Linda Stegbauer, of Lynchburg, Ohio, learned of Hillbilly Days from an episode of Carnival Eats on the Food Network. The couple tasted a sirloin tip dinner after the parade, rating it an eight out of ten. They also tried the Swiss melt on Texas toast. In their first visit to Pikeville, they took in the views at Bob Amos Park’s overlook and stayed at Breaks Interstate Park, on the border of Kentucky and Virginia.

Tackett said not just Pike County feels the economic impact of Hillbilly Days, but the entire region. The downtown hotels generally fill up 11 months before the festival, pushing visitors to stay at the Breaks, Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonsburg, Paintsville and Hazard. Some even cross into West Virginia, to stay in Williamson.

The Hillbilly Days return also sets precedence for neighboring communities’ festivals, Tackett said.

“This time last year, the buck was if we don’t have our festival here in Pike County ...that other festivals would have to be put off, and that was worrisome,” he said. “We never want to be that trickle effect. By the time we saw fall come, we knew there would be the chance of a return.”

Tackett is already planning for the return of Hillbilly Days in 2023, scheduled for April 20-22.

This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 8:41 PM.