By Kathy Chaffin

Salisbury Post

CLEVELAND — The town's fifth annual Spring Fest on Saturday will feature more attractions than ever.

"I think this one is going to be one of the best ones we've had," said Town Commissioner Mary Frank "Frankie" Fleming-Adkins at Monday night's board meeting. "We try to do something a little different every year, and I think we've accomplished that this year."

Though the Cleveland Spring Fest won't officially begin until noon, weather permitting, balloonists with the Carolina Ballooning Association of Statesville will be lifting off from the town park on Clement Street between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.

Fleming-Adkins, who heads up the town's Park Committee, said the Carolina Ballooning Association will also present a Balloon Glow Saturday evening. As part of the light show, she said, association members fill a stationary balloon with a special gas that illuminates it, creating a kaleidoscope effect.

"It's just gorgeous," she said.

The Spring Fest will also include a variety of carnival rides, which children with a $10 wristband can ride as much as they want. Children who bring fliers distributed at their schools will get $1 off the cost.

Games will also be offered for children and adults.

Music will be provided by Divided by Four, which plays R&B, Motown, oldies and soul music. "This is the first year we've had a band," Fleming-Adkins said.

The West Rowan Jazz Band and the West Rowan Percussion Band will also perform. DJ Jim Campbell with Sound Entertainment of Statesville will also provide music.

Also scheduled are dance performances by the Silver Liner Dancers of Cabarrus County, the Nani Tutu E Hawaiian dancers and the Wagon Wheel Cloggers.

Fleming-Adkins said the Silver Liner Dancers is a group of retired ladies from Cabarrus County. "They're a perfect example of how you're never too old to exercise or take on something new," she said. "They've got better legs than most teenagers."

The Silver Liner Dancers will have on patriotic costumes in keeping with the theme of this year's Spring Fest, "This Old Flag."

"It's honoring the fact that we can still say the Pledge of Allegiance and we can still use 'In God we trust' and that type of thing," Fleming-Adkins said. In deciding when to schedule the very first Spring Fest, she said, Park Committee members decided having it before Memorial Day would give them a chance to do something patriotic.

"It's a way to honor the veterans and what they have fought for," she said. "We want people to walk away from the festival and have a sense of Memorial Day and our freedom."

Also scheduled for the Spring Fest are a variety of craft and food venders, including offerings from Cleveland Elementary, West Rowan Middle and West Rowan High schools and various churches and organizations.

Fleming-Adkins said the Park Committee wants Spring Fest to be a venue for the different nonprofits to raise money. Christ Episcopal Church, for example, will be selling chicken sandwiches off the grill, and the West Rowan Neighborhood Center Advisory Council, which is raising money to restore the old R.A. Clement School, will be holding a fish fry.

Venders will be selling all types of food, including Oriental, Cajun, sausage and ham biscuits by McLaughlin's Sausage of Mooresville and hot dogs and hamburgers. Cotton candy, Icees and homemade ice cream will also be available.

"There's just a little bit of something for everybody," Fleming-Adkins said.

Wetmore Farms of Woodleaf will even be selling strawberries. "Come out and get something to eat, watch the fireworks and buy your strawberries," she said, "and you can have strawberry shortcake for Sunday lunch."

Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249 or kchaffin@salisburypost.com.

Spring Fest schedule:

Noon - Festival opens

12:30 p.m. - Nani Tutu E Hawaiian dancers

1:30 p.m. - The Silver Liner Dancers

2:30 p.m. - West Rowan Jazz Band

3 p.m. - West Rowan Percussion Band

3-5 p.m. - N.C. Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter

5 p.m. - Wagon Wheel Cloggers

6:30-8:30 p.m. - Divided by Four Band

8:30 p.m. - Hot Air Balloon Glow (Weather permitting)

9:15 p.m. - Memorial Day/Spring Fest Fireworks Display

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