FAIRMONT – Diversity of place and celebration of community will be on display Saturday in Fairmont.
Main Street Fairmont is hosting the second annual Pride Block Party as part of its Hometown Market summer series, organizers said.
That means food trucks, live music and more, said Alex Petry, Main Street’s director.
It runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a pride rally which will also be part of the downtown proceedings at 11:30 a.m., Petry said, with a party at Stumptown Ales to follow.
Last year’s inaugural rally brought in a huge crowd, he said.
Petry, who grew up in nearby Barrackville and earned an MBA at Fairmont State University likes that, he said.
And the positive progressivism of the afternoon, he said, is one more way to market a city that’s more unique and historical than one might think.
Fairmont, for example, is the hometown of Francis Pierpont, an Abraham Lincoln confidante who served as Governor of the Restored Virginia after West Virginia’s statehood and diplomacy thereof that helped end the Civil War.
Johnnie Johnson hails from here, too.
Johnson is the boogie-woogie piano player and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who gave Chuck Berry his first gig – while later helping Berry write his biggest jukebox hits through the 1950s.
The city bisected by the Monongahela River is also recognized as the birthplace of the pepperoni roll, West Virginia’s iconic snack food.
Fairmont also became home to the state’s first shopping mall when Middletown Mall opened its doors to shoppers in 1969.
“We have all that character and this great architecture and a vibrant downtown,” Petry said.
A Christmas in July celebration is also set to promote December’s Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival. August will be owned by the Hometown Market’s popular Tomato Festival.
Plans for end-of-summer wrap, a Fairmont State University-themed celebration, are still being finalized, Petry said.
