IPLEY - West Virginia's oldest heritage fair, the Mountain State Art and Craft Fair, will be July 5-7 at the Cedar Lakes Conference Center near Ripley.
Ticket prices range from $6 for adults and $2 for children. For more information on the event and a daily event schedule go online at www.msacf.com or call 1-800-CALLWVA.
In addition to more than 130 juried artisans demonstrating and selling their wares, this year's fair offers traditional Appalachian music, food, heritage exhibits and family activities.
The fair gives everyone a chance to meet the crafters and see how their wares are made by hand.
During the fair there will be educational classes and participants will leave each class with a completed project.
Each class is designed and developed by the individual artisans. There will be plenty of activities for the whole family throughout the three-day event.
Other activities at the fair will include quilt clinics, a petting zoo, a sawmill replica and antique logging exhibit, a butterfly exhibit, a farmers' market and many others.
For a second year, the New Era Kite Club from Mineral Wells has been invited to participate in the MSACF. The kite club will hold kite-making workshops for children each morning and will also give classes and kite flying demonstrations daily during the fair.
"It went really, really well last year," said Max Barker, president of the club which is based out of the New Era Oneroom School Museum on the grounds of Mineral Wmmells Elementary School.
Barker said the club was asked to bring 100 kits last year for the kite-building workshops, but soon had to ration those so they all weren't used on the first day due to the heavy response from interested children and parents. This year, the club will be doubling the number of kite kits it takes to the Ripley event.
Barker hopes the success of the kite activities last year and this year's invitation to return will lead to more involvement by the club with the MSACF in the future.
Some of the activities and entertainment scheduled for the fair include:
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