Fabulous Turn Out for Mount Airy’s Mayberry Days

Last week in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the Surry Arts Council hosted their annual Mayberry Days Festival. September marks the beginning of Fall but in Mount Airy everyone, especial us at Mount Airy Toyota, gets excited for the Mayberry Days! Mount Airy is famously known for being the hometown of Andy Griffith.  Each year the Mayberry Days festival is celebrated to remember the old times and to celebrate the Andy Griffith Show.

The Mayberry Days festival is hosted by the Surry Arts Council, who are dedicated to providing opportunities for their community to experience performing and visual arts. The Surry Arts Council believes that the arts are an essential part of their community and strive to provide access to the arts so that people may discover and develop their talents. They maintain several historic and educational sites such as the Andy Griffith Museum and Playhouse, which were sites for the activities of the Mayberry Days Festival last week. At Mount Airy Toyota, we enjoy participating in the events of our community. Mayberry Days is always an exciting time for us, our favorite event is the Saturday morning Mayberry Days Parade. 

All week long, the Andy Griffith Museum and Playhouse remained the hub for information on the Mayberry Days events. There were live bands, shows, and lots of games and contest held at these facilities. The festival had wonderful live bands playing music from the Andy Griffith Show and music from the olden days. Many folks could be seen enjoying the festival by walking around and reminiscing on the simpler times. The event had several fun activities for children to enjoy as well. Kids participated in arts and crafts, a ring toss, blowing bubbles, and there was even a llama there for them to pet.

The Andy Griffith Museum was open all week for anyone to visit.  Andy Griffith is one of the most iconic people from Mount Airy and the Andy Griffith Museum is still one of Mount Airy’s most popular tourist attractions. The museum holds a collection of props, artifacts, and even wardrobes that have been donated by the cast and crew of The Andy Griffith Show. A place of learning, the museum’s purpose is to preserve the legacy of Andy Griffith and educate those who visit the museum. The museum was open the entire week of the Mayberry Days and on Saturday, special guest Professor Neal Brower gave guests his annual lecture with an in-depth analysis of the classic TV show.

On Thursday, the Mayberry Days hosted their annual golf tournament in honor of Emmett Forrest at Cross Creek Country Club. Forrest was an avid golfer and a dedicated contributor to the Andy Griffith Museum. The annual Mayberry Days Golf Tournament is one of Mount Airy Toyota’s favorite events. In years past, many of Mount Airy Toyota’s employees have participated in the tournament. One of our family dealerships, Mount Airy Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat, participated as a sponsor for the Mayberry Days festival. Many Ram trucks where lined up on the course for golfers and guest to view.

The day started out with a light rain but quickly turned around into a beautiful day for golfing. In addition to the game, golfers were invited to a country buffet dinner and were entertained by special guest. With great weather, wonderful food, and good company the event was a success.

The Cross Creek Country Club provided a wonderful scenic view for golfers. This 18-hole championship course gave golfers a fun challenge over about 6800 yards located long the Blue Ridge Mountains. The course plays to a par of 72 and has several tees for golfer to enjoy. 

Mayberry Days was packed on Friday and Saturday with many contests and events being held. The apple peeling contest was one of the most popular events this year. The goal is to have the longest continuous apple peel. This event is based off a scene in The Andy Griffith Show where Andy peels and apple without breaking the peel! Not the only food based contest, the Mayberry Days also hosted a pork chop eating contest and a pie eating contest. The pork chop eating contest was hosted at a local restaurant, the Snappy Lunch. The previous record was 8 pork chops! What if you weren’t full after eating all those pork chops? There was also a pie eating contest in front of the Andy Griffith Playhouse on Friday afternoon. Contestants competed to see who could eat one of Aunt Bea’s Crustless Cream Pies the fastest. At Mount Airy Toyota, we love eating at Aunt Bea’s restaurant! It is amongst one of our favorite lunch spots. With two contests, one for kids and one for adults, it was a lot of fun to see everyone enjoying Aunt Bea’s Pies. 

Saturday morning was the famous Mayberry Days Parade. People lined up all long downtown Mount Airy to view the spectacular parade. Kids came prepared with bags to collect candy for parade stars passing out sweet treats.

At Mount Airy Toyota, the Parade is always our favorite event. We love seeing people from our community gather in downtown to see the stars of the parade drive by. Helping to make the smiles of kids and folks of our small quaint town, is always a pleasure. This year we had a few of our Toyota vehicles featured in the parade. The Toyota Tacoma was the perfect vehicle to host parade guests. They seemed to be having fun too!