The Gingerbread Festival, held in Hindman, Kentucky each September, celebrates heritage, community, and the changing of seasons with music, crafts, delicious food, and of course, gingerbread! The festival has been cherished by the citizens of the county for several decades and is considered one of the highlights of living in the community. After a long year in 2020 with no festival due to the pandemic, The Gingerbread Festival is ready to return better than ever. In the hopes of expanding the festival in 2021, the Festival will be offering virtual events throughout the summer leading up to the festival dates.
Events:
Virtual Gingerbread Making Class with Knott County-Famous Gingerbread Maker, Barb Smith: Learn how to make the festival’s namesake from the best of the best from the comforts of your own kitchen! May 15th at 6:00 p.m. via Facebook Live.
Interactive Website in the Works: The Knott County Gingerbread Festival Committee is working on creating a website that features oral histories, a festival photo archives, recipes for festival favorites, and a countdown to the festival with interactive activities. Website set to launch in 2021.
Lexington Local Foodies: The Gingerbread Festival prides themselves on their local food vendors, but also loves when a new vendor comes to town to share a new food & tradition. The Committee would like to invite all local Lexington chefs, restaurants, and food trucks to consider bringing their food to the Gingerbread Festival, where they are confident they will be greeted with excited (and hungry) visitors.
History of the Festival:
Knott County, where the festival is held, is an Eastern Kentucky county that has always been a largely impoverished community. In the 40s and 50s, many did not have many to buy any “extras” when it came to food–only the essentials. Gingerbread, a half dessert and half loaf, mostly required ingredients everyone already had, so it was easy to make. Many Knott Countians involved in local politics would bring the gingerbread to polling places in hopes of potentially swaying a vote or two. It was each politician’s secret weapon. However, after a Kentucky law was passed that no campaigning could occur within 100 feet of a polling place, the gingerbread vote swaying was removed.
Many counties were joining the Kentucky Festival Circuit and Knott County had yet to do so. Local officials were looking for a way to bring more tourism into the county and also community members a tradition that could last. Thus, the Gingerbread Festival was born.
Significance of the Food:
The festival has many components: live music, carnival games, arts and crafts, just to name a few. However, year after year, the most special part continues to be the food.
Food vendors and local community members line the streets of downtown Hindman with their dishes: cheesecake on a stick, chili in a bag, barbecue pork sandwiches, and specialty gingerbread desserts like the community sorority, Beta Sigma Phi’s, classic Gingerbread Delight.
Food in the South has always been special, and has never been just about what’s on the plate. It represents who made it (ie: a beloved grandmother, a favorite teacher, a best friend), why they made it (ie: the passing of a loved one, lunch for a coal miner, a family potluck), and how they made it, which usually could take hours or even days of preparation.
In my MCL 270 class, we read from a writer who said, “I thought Southern food was magical because I got to be a part of the making.”
This encompasses the food at the Gingerbread Festival. Each community member gets to be a part of the making, whether that be through knowing the maker, making it themselves, or eating and supporting the food, one of the biggest forms of respect to a Knott County resident.
While many foods have come and gone at the festival, the gingerbread remains the same. Repeat makers come time & time again to prove themselves as the best gingerbread maker, and when a gingerbread maker passes, the recipe is very secretly passed down to the next generation.
There is a huge amount of pride associated with the gingerbread making, and the community views the makers as the county’s best cooks. It’s more than just gingerbread, and it’s certainly more than just food.
Personal Connection to Festival:
As a resident of Knott County my entire life, the Festival plays back in my mind as a tribute to my youth and my community. There was no better feeling to me than the first night of the festival as a kid, where I would start my night off at the Ball Creek Fire Department food booth to get my platter of potato wedges and a cheeseburger, where Curtis, the griller, knew to hold the tomatoes but to give me extra cheese.
The years of sitting on the courthouse steps with my styrofoam platters of food, walking the streets with my friends, chili in a bag in hand, or eating a celebratory cheesecake on a stick breakfast after the Saturday 5K, the food of the Gingerbread Festival will always represent tradition, community, and most importantly, home.
Sources:
Ronni Lundy. 2016. Selections from Victuals: An Appalachian Journey with Recipes. New York: Clarkson Potter.
Michael Twitty. 2017. Selections from The Cooking Gene. New York: Harper Collins.
Thomas A. Adler. 1988. “Bluegrass Music and Meal-Fried Potatoes: Food, Festival, Community.” We Gather Together: Food and Festivals in American Life, Theodore and Lin C. Humphrey, eds., 195-204. Ann Arbor, MI: U. of Michigan Press.
