Volcano Days adds pageant
By ROGER ADKINS, radkins@newsandsentinel.comVOLCANO - This year's Volcano Days Festival in September will feature the first Miss Volcano pageant.
Tammi Collins, director of marketing and events at Mountwood Park, said this will be the first time the festival has been accompanied by a pageant. The contest will be recognized by the Miss West Virginia Fairs and Festivals Association, meaning the winner will have an opportunity to move on to higher levels of competition, she said.
Contestants in the pageant must be age 16 or older, Collins said. Applications and information will be available soon at www.mountwoodpark.org, she said.
"We want the winner to go onto to compete in other events, so we're doing it using their guidelines," she said.
The pageant will feature competitions in street wear, event promotion, judges interviews and evening gowns in addition to a Miss Photogenic competition, Collins said.
The park is a member of the fairs and festivals association and Collins said she attended a Miss West Virginia Pageant during a conference. She said she realized Volcano Days should have a pageant.
"I just went in to watch and thought, 'Hey, we should have a Miss Volcano Days pageant.' We've never had one before that I know of," she said. "It makes sense for us to have one."
The park never had a pageant before because prior administrations didn't have anyone to explore the process of holding a recognized pageant.
"No one really knew how to go about doing it," Collins said.
The park still needs to find a pageant director and judges for the competition, Collins said.
Collins said a second, separate pageant will be held for girls younger than 15.
"We wanted to be sure to do something that included younger people," she said.
The pageants will be a great way to bring more people to the Volcano Days festival and to Mountwood Park, Collins said.
"Hopefully, we'll have people beating down the doors to get in," Collins said. "I think it will be something that brings people out."
