The inaugural Orange County Local Fest is being held this Saturday at the Blackwood Farm Park in Hillsborough.

Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Mark Dorosin says the festival, which will feature everything from food trucks and local breweries to animal presentations, is meant to bring the community together to celebrate all Orange County has to offer.

“[It’s] really just an opportunity for folks to come together and reintroduce themselves to the county and to Blackwood Farm, and really just to celebrate all the great things that make this county unique,” says Dorosin.

Dorosin says the festival has been in the planning phase for several years now.

“We started talking about having a county fair a couple of years ago and there was some preliminary planning started, but we ran into lots of challenges, so it sort of got tabled,” says Dorosin.

Then, according to Dorosin, the development of the Blackwood Farm Park offered the county the perfect setting for the festival, which helped it become a reality.

“I think last fall the idea came back up to do something, maybe not on the scale of a fair but something that would capture the goals that we had, which was to really celebrate the county, highlight this beautiful facility that belongs to the public and focus on local food, music, art, and historical crafts and trades,” says Dorosin.

All proceeds from the festival will go toward the Breeze Farm Incubator, which provides a place for aspiring farmers who don’t have access to the necessary land or equipment.

For more information, visit orangecountylocalfest.com.

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