May Faire, the annual Mathews spring heritage festival sponsored by the Mathews Museum of History, returns this Saturday with the theme “Celebrating Teachers, Schools & Community: Over a Hundred Years of Public Education in Mathews County.”
Entertainment and various family activities will take place throughout the day on the Mathews Court Green at Church and Court streets, with arts and crafts booths and food booths providing a wealth of shopping and dining opportunities. There will be the traditional May Pole dance, a pound cake contest and sale, an oyster cooking demonstration, a children’s corner, a drawing for a $100 cash prize, and the presentation of prizes to teachers. An antique fire truck will be on display, and an archaeological dig will be conducted by the Fairfield Foundation at historic Tompkins Cottage, next to the Court Green.
Related activities will take place during the day at the Mathews Historical Museum (see below).
Those wishing to enter the pound cake contest should take their cakes to the Mathews Administration Building on the Court Green Saturday morning. There is no entry fee, and cash prizes will be awarded
Opening ceremonies for the festival will be held at 9:30 a.m. at the main stage on the Court Green, featuring music by students from Mathews Elementary School, directed by Scott Enos. After the opening, the students will perform until 11 a.m., followed by Thomas Hunter Middle School students, who will perform from 11 a.m. to noon.
Also at 11 a.m., the public is invited to attend “Conversations at the Courthouse” in the Historic Courthouse on Court Street. Lifelong Mathews friends and cousins Valerie Bass, owner of Hair Creations salon, and Nancy Rowe, school nurse and nursing teacher, will kick off the conversations with a comedy routine, “Tattle Tales,” sharing stories about the many classroom foibles and mishaps that have occurred over the years. This will be followed by conversations with various Mathews teachers, past and present, including Marcia Fry, Rebecca Brown, Nancy Katsuki, Edith Turner and Lindsey Dalton. Judy Rowe, herself a long-time Mathews teacher, will serve as moderator.
Around noon, Jonathan Lewis, owner of Southwind Pizza, will slip over to the Court Green to demonstrate his oyster cooking techniques in “A Celebration of Oysters.” Around that same time, the pound cakes from the contest will go on sale at the festival’s Welcome Booth.
A May King and May Queen will be crowned at 2 p.m. followed by a May Pole dance.
At 2:30, the winners of the pound cake contest will be announced, and there will be drawings and presentations, followed by additional music until 4 p.m.
Mathews Historical Museum
The Mathews Historical Museum at 200 Main Street will be open all day, offering an art show by local students at all grade levels and displays featuring schools, school memorabilia, and “A Wall of Teachers.” There will also be various activities, including a tea party and social at noon, with teachers and students from county schools in the 1940s and 1950s as special guests. The museum is located on Mathews Main Street.
“We hope all of the Mathews community and our visitors will have a wonderful time at May Faire 2023,” said festival co-chairs John Caramia and Cindy Roman.