Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

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Cultivating Community
The Colleton County
Rice Festival
For 200 years, rice was
literally “Carolina Gold,” as South
Carolina was at one time the largest
producer of the grain. While the
industry essentially disappeared in the
early 1900s, following a long decline
after the Civil War, it is responsible for
growing deeply rooted communities that remain today.
The Colleton County
Rice
Festival
honors the county’s heritage
in the business. Many of its
plantations that once thrived
as rice producers remain,
as do the old rice paddies,
which are commonly used
today for hunting.
“This festival is
a celebration of our
community,” said Bubba
Trippe, volunteer chairman of
the festival. “In recent years,
between 20,000 and 30,000
people have come to celebrate
it with us.”
Now in its 41st year, the
2016 Rice Festival will be
held April 22 and 23, with
several events leading up to
and following the official
festival dates.
“We’ve got something for
every age and every crowd,”
said Trippe. “I have been coming to the Colleton County
Rice Festival since it started, and it is amazing to see how
it has grown. Our Festival Committee has worked hard to
organize a series of events that keep people coming back
year after year.”
Kicking off the week of the festival, the Taste of
Walterboro showcases food and drink from local
restaurants, and proceeds help fund the following
year’s festival.
Other events include a dog show, BMX ramp
shows, tennis and golf tournaments, fireworks, a live
band and more.
“The 5K Rice Run has been happening since the festival
started, and we also hold a
Miss Rice Festival pageant,”
said Trippe. “One of the
newer favorite events is the
Palmetto DockDogs, where
dogs compete in distance or
height while jumping from a
40-foot dock.”
Another event that was
added recently, the Tour de
Lowcountry, consists of a
66-mile and a 32-mile bike
ride from Walterboro that
winds past old rice paddies
and plantations such as
White Hall Plantation, Bluff
Plantation and Cherokee
Plantation, and returns to
Walterboro, followed by food
and drinks for the cyclists.
The Colleton County
Rice Festival is much more
than a remembrance of a
long-gone industry or an
opportunity to savor one of
the South’s favorite staples. It
is a celebration of today’s thriving community, served up
with a side of fun. And, of course, a side of rice.
For more information on the Colleton County Rice Festival,
visit
By Anne Toole
The Colleton County Rice Festival offers fun and interesting
activities for people of all ages and for canines as well.
In GoodTaste
Photos courtesy of the Colleton County Rice Festival.