You’ve no doubt heard me going on about what a wonderful community Dripping Springs, Texas is but, in case you somehow managed to miss it, here are a few snaps from the Pioneer Day Festival which took place a week ago at the Dr. Pound House in Founders’ Park. This is another great example of a fun community event which involved a whole bunch of local groups and organisations.

One of the wonderful things about living in a rural area, and one thing that I missed when living in the city, is great community spirit. Our local town, Dripping Springs, celebrated its annual Founders’ Day this weekend and you won’t find a better example of community spirit than this event. The fun starts on Friday evening with a parade in which half the town kids ride on floats sponsored by local businesses and organisation, and the other half catch the mountain of candy that is thrown from those floats. The carnival is in town and the parade route goes right through the middle of it, adding to the fun. On Saturday and Sunday, the center of the town is filled with booths set up by local artists, craftspeople and businesses and 100s (literally) of barbecue aficionados – teams from all over the state – determined to win an award for best fajitas, brisket, chicken or a host of other smoked staples. All of this is, obviously, a lot of fun and I’m sure the booth vendors do well at the event but the thing that really sets this apart from the many, many city art shows I’ve attended is the fact that everyone is so incredibly sociable and talkative.

Being a “home town” event, I recognise a fair number of friends and neighbours there but, regardless of whether I’ve met anyone before, everyone is sociable and most are keen on conversation as much as selling their wares or winning the barbecue competition. The atmosphere is wonderful.

As I headed to the car after my first experience of a Founders’ Day 5 years ago, I remember hearing something over the public address that said a great deal about the event. It’s odd but those three words said more about the event than I could manage in this whole post. They were “9th Place Brisket.”

You can see more of my favourite images from the event over on SmugMug.