Mountain Festival attendees enjoy music, food at 2-day event

CAMP NELSON — Food, friends and fun ruled the day at the Mountain Festival in Camp Nelson on Saturday and continued in similar fashion on Sunday.

The event, which is in its 24th year, featured a barbecue, live music, log sawing and arts and crafts.

Porterville photographer and former Monache High School teacher Bob Briscoe manned a stand with his photographs. He and his wife Diana have been regular attendees at the Mountain Festival since 2006.

Briscoe said the beautiful scenery at Camp Nelson is one of the many reasons he enjoys the event.

“This is such a wonderful setting,” he said. “It’s the prettiest location.”

He also likes the two-day event because he sees many familiar faces, he said.

“It’s so neat to see people you know [at the festival].” Briscoe said. “It’s a great venue — not too big, not too small.”

Other vendors offered carved wooden boxes, taken solely from fallen trees in Springville, and handmade jewelry.

At noon Saturday, the weekend’s first live entertainment took the stage — Sierra Storm.

The four-piece band played songs ranging from Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” to a special rendition of “In the Jungle” to an appreciative audience.

Lead guitarist Roger Kay handed the microphone to his son Alex, 6, who provided the vocals and strummed along on his guitar.

While barbecued offerings and guitar twangs kept many at the picnic tables and in the shaded area near the stage, others were hard at work.

The U.S. Forest Service had a log and two-person cross saw present for those who wanted to take their own slice of the forest home.

For each pair that successfully cut a thin piece of wood off of the end of the log, Forest Service employees present emblazoned a sequoia tree on one side and Smokey Bear on the other as part of a fire prevention effort.

“We’ve been here every year since the beginning of the festival,” fire prevention technician Brenda Diaz said.

The fire prevention effort, nicknamed the Smokey Bear program, includes the distribution of school materials for children and information pamphlets for adults, Diaz said.

The materials for children included Smokey Bear activity books, pencils, rulers and erasers. Adults could pick up instructions about how to protect their property from potential wildfires by clearing brush to create a “defensive space” around their homes.

“In [Camp Nelson], a wind-driven fire could just go from tree to tree,” Diaz warned.

Kingsburg resident Debbie Quinn attends the festival annually with her husband. Quinn said she enjoyed the food, the music — and the breezy weather.

“[Camp Nelson] is a lot cooler than being down in the Valley,” she said.

She, like the Briscoes, also enjoyed the company.

“Everyone is just so friendly,” she said.

-- Contact Sarah de Crescenzo at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or sdecrescenzo@portervillerecorder.com.