by Lisa Schauer
Well over a thousand people showed up for the second annual Paw Paw Festival on Saturday, September 13 at Paw Paw Municipal Park.
Billed as “West Virginia’s sweetest hidden gem,” the festival is a celebration of the mountain state’s native fruit, local flavor, and small-town charm.
In the presentation tent, horticulture experts and authors discussed the paw paw fruit’s history, content, and growing conditions. A rapt audience asked questions and waited to buy books.
Other presentation topics included the Town of Paw Paw’s cultural history, agroforestry of Appalachia, and paw paw breeding programs. 
Guided plant walks continued around the park throughout the day, focusing on native edible and medicinal plants.
Healthy-looking paw paw tree saplings were for sale at a discount. Growers said to buy two if you don’t have other paws paws on your property, so they could bear fruit.
A shuttle bus from Potomac Valley Transit Authority, based out of Petersburg, brought passengers for the daylong festival.
Long lines formed at a variety of food trucks in the vendor village. Hot sun baked the parched field.
Musical entertainers included Laz Rapidaz from Black Cat School of Music, and Mary Hott with Mike Kligerman and Hannah Jean.
Hott, a Paw Paw native, performed “Take me home to Paw Paw,” written by the late Rudy Lewis, and had the crowd singing along to John Prine’s “In a town this size.”
Turnout was so successful that volunteers in the pavilion were sold out of whole paw paws and running low on samples by about halfway through the event.
The Paw Paw Festival is organized by the Paw Paw Festival volunteer committee and is funded in part by grants and sponsors.
