Editor’s note: The symmetry of 52 weeks in a year and 26 letters in our alphabet inspired us here at The Eatonton Messenger to embark on an alphabetical journey every other week in 2023, looking at something – or someone – unique, significant, unusual, or just plain interesting in Putnam County, Georgia, home to 10 different locations listed on the National Register of Historic Places – including the Putnam County Courthouse as part of Eatonton’s official historic district.
As the newspaper of record, The Eatonton Messenger dubbed June 16, 1953, as “a date that has no doubt engraved itself deeply in the history” of Putnam County.
The paper was describing the inaugural Dairy Festival, more specifically the parade, which featured 29 floats, then-Governor Herman Talmadge, reigning Miss America Neva Jane Langley of Macon, newly crowned Dairy Festival Queen Marie Maddox, and many other local politicians, dignitaries and industry leaders.
Following the parade, an estimated crowd of 6,000-plus descended on the courthouse square in downtown Eatonton, where hundreds of dairy cows from 250 or more dairy operations throughout the county were on display. Meanwhile a huge barbeque—with free milk for all—continued throughout the day while bands and children played long into the evening.
In addition to The Messenger, media coverage of the day came from Atlanta’s WSB radio broadcasting the governor’s post-parade speech live, plus reporters on the ground from both the Journal and Constitution newspapers in Atlanta, prior to their 1982 merger.
The festival, officially created to celebrate Putnam County’s rise to “Dairy Capital of the South” status, remained the biggest annual celebration in the county for years.
However, as the 1960s drew to a close, dwindling resources led to its cancellation in 1970. Eatonton’s fledgling Pilot Club resurrected the Dairy Festival in 1978 as its first community project and continues to this day as the event’s annual organizer and promoter. The event was cancelled due to COVID restraints in 2020 and ’21 but resumed last year to popular acclaim.
Glenda Ridley has been a Pilot Club member since its inception and now serves as its fundraising chairperson.She also is among the driving forces behind the current Dairy Festival and parade, scheduled for June 3, this year.
She said planning for each year’s festival begins almost as soon as the previous event ends, at the Pilot Club’s July meeting with a review of everything that went well and what may need improvement. The remainder of each year follows a pretty routine accounting, Ridley said, but activity really ramps up as the calendar turns over.
“We start with our committees and really working on our events in January,” Ridley said. “That’s when we send out our applications to the vendors and parade participants and requests for sponsorships and all those kinds of things. There’s really a lot that goes into it each year.”
The local Pilot Club consists of only 27 members currently, so Ridley stressed the Dairy Festival could not happen without the support of its sponsors, along with that of the Eatonton and Putnam County Fire Departments, Eatonton Police Department and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
She also emphasized the contributions of both city and county maintenance workers, who build the Pilot Club’s stage each year, as well as set up and later remove tables, chairs “and all sorts of things,” she added.
This year’s Dairy Festival will begin with a 7:30 a.m. Fun Run, followed by an 8 a.m. start of the Dairy Festival 5K Road Race. By 9 a.m., vendor booths will be open all around the courthouse square in Eatonton, with a 10 a.m. scheduled start for the Dairy Festival Parade through the streets of Eatonton.
Once the parade has passed, short speeches and remarks from the courthouse stage will culminate in a presentation honoring this year’s Putnam County Dairy Family of the Year, with a barbeque and live entertainment to follow until a scheduled 4 p.m. close. For details, or to download road race, parade, vendor or sponsor forms for the 2023 Dairy Festival, visit online at putnamcountydairyfestival. com/events.
Ridley recognizes there’s nowhere near the number of dairy operations in Putnam County that existed when the Dairy Festival began, but insisted dairy farming remains relevant and part of the fabric of the community.
“We still celebrate the fact that Putnam County was at one time the biggest and most important dairy county in Georgia. It was important to Putnam County, the dairy industry supplied a lot of the economy for the county,” she said. “It helped to make us what we are today.”