By Burton Cole
FALMOUTH — About 24,000 people flocked to the three-day 2024 Kentucky Wool Festival under bright, sunny skies this past weekend.
Among them on Saturday was JK Lemay of Morehead, who, with his kids, had just finished watching a sheep shearing demonstration.
The Wool Festival has been a regional attraction since 1983, but this was the first visit for Lemay and family.
“We’re really enjoying it so far,” he said. He nodded toward his kids petting a freshly sheared sheep. “This is the first time they’ve seen experiences like this.”
“It was cool,” Addison Lemay, 12, said. She squeezed her fingers into the ribbon of shaved wool on the stage. “(It’s like) fluffy hair.”
Her dad said, “I think it’s cool how they take it from where it is and make it into something you can wear.”
In the livestock tent, people visited with sheep, goats, cows and other critters.
Alyiah Kasee, 3, giggled as eager goats nibbled feed from the palm of her hand.
While Alyiah’s pops, Allen Scott of Falmouth, keep the feed cups coming, her mimi, Deborah Scott, said she and family are Wool Festival regulars.
“I love bringing the kids out for the petting zoo. I love the arts and crafts. And I love the music. We love it,” Deborah Scott said.
In the wool tent, Margeaux Gibson of Independence had kicked off her shoes and worked the foot pedals of a spinning machine with her bare feet. She was plying two strands of dyed wool into one strand two make it stronger and “I like the stripey effect,” she said.
Gibson said she’s been setting up shop at the Wool Festival for at least 15 years. The community makes the trip worthwhile, she said.
“You see a lot of the same people every year,” she said. “It’s just a fun atmosphere.”
Other festival highlights included sheep herding demonstrations by Alan Miller of Miller’s Border Collies of Bloomfield, dozens of musical acts, tent after tent and trail after trail crammed with crafts vendors, and an expansive buffet of food offerings.