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new concept, the Vidalia Onion Festival, Mrs. Brice recalled.

Mrs. Brice chaired the Arts and Crafts Show from 1976 to 2005. In the ensuing years, the event was moved to a local football field and later, the city offered a location near the airport. “The city was most kind to us. They cut down trees, mowed the underbrush and allowed us to form the different aisles. All of those years, the Lions Club members were the dearest people to work with. We couldn’t have done it without them,” Mrs. Brice commented.

“My delight was that the Arts and Crafts Show would give people in our area the ability to see and buy handmade arts and crafts,” Mrs. Brice recalled. “Artists and crafters from several states would come each year. We always tried to treat crafters like family,” she noted, adding that the clubs hosted a Sunday morning church service and brunch for the artisans. “We thought that since they were on the road, they didn’t have a chance to go to church, so we brought church to them.” From the beginning the artisans came from all over and in great numbers. The crafters numbered around 100 and many crafters returned year after year.

The show didn’t always rock along smoothly, Mrs. Brice recalled. “Sometimes we would assign a spot to a person and they didn’t like it. I trotted all over the place, looking at my little diagram, trying to please everybody,” she shared. “Every year was different. (Lions Club member) Howard Rogers was our electrical expert. We just couldn’t have done it without the Lions. We started out so uneducated, and we’d make mistakes and learn not do the same thing next year,” Mrs. Brice admitted.

“I tell you now, it got to be such a burden to me, and I was glad to find somebody to take over. It got to the point for every year from January to the end of April I felt like it was a disease, and it took me several months to get over it,” she confessed with a chuckle. She chaired the show for almost three decades.

After all these years, the Arts and Crafts Festival is still a big part of the annual Onion Festival, and up until 2021, was the VWC’s biggest fundraiser. The Woman’s Club disbanded and the project was assumed in total by The Vidalia Lions Club.

Spring Fest

According to an article in The Vidalia Advance, the first joint effort between the community as a whole, the VWC and Lions Club to promote the Vidalia Onion was known as Spring Fest.

A Vidalia Advance article published on May 12, 1977, announced plans to promote the Vidalia Onion at “Spring Fest III.” The name was a carryover from the previous two years of art festivals cosponsored by the VWC and the Vidalia Lions Club. Bill Ledford, editor and publisher of The Advance, wrote: (Headline: Arts Fest III):“The Vidalia Arts and Crafts Show and Vidalia onions are about as analogously complimentary of each other as two completely different entities could possibly be. Sound silly and contradictory? Not really, when you temporize that both Vidalia onions and the arts and crafts festival during recent years have enjoyed a tenor of success and popularity that most vegetables and about every weekend craft show envies…” The announcement went on to note that the Vidalia Onion was “billed as star of the cast” and would be “available in quality and quantity,” along with 100 booths of arts and crafts at the Georgia Warehouse on First Street.

By the next year, the event garnered even more local support and was officially dubbed Vidalia Onion Festival. The original arts and crafts show, still sponsored by the VWC and Lions Club, continued as Arts Fest IV.

Businessman Dent Temples recalled the early days of the arts and crafts festival. He was affiliated with the Lions Club. “I drove a big, yellow station wagon, and we would spend the night in that station wagon to guard the arts in the warehouse so they would not be stolen.”

Temples remembered that Erne’ Morris thought up the idea of an arts and festival, and it was “more art than crafts. We had some really high-class artists.” He recalled that the Lions Club members were “gophers and doers” and that Erne’ was the arranger. “She contacted all of the artists. We handled laying out the warehouse with booths and we cleaned up. The ladies handled the ticket taking.” He emphasized, “We (The Lions) were looking for a fundraiser at the time, but it was a joint venture.” Taste-Off in Walla Walla

By 1982, the community was fully behind the festival, and promotion of the famous onion. The May 13, 1982 edition The Advance announced that Vidalia had been invited to Walla Walla, Washington, for a friendly taste-off in July. Walla Walla boasted a similarly sweet onion that the Walla Walla folks thought might rival Vidalia’s.

The competition between the two communities had begun a year earlier when the Walla Walla Growers Association in cooperation with the Walla Walla Union Bulletin newspaper sponsored an onion tasting and cooking contest in which Walla Walla beat Vidalia “by mere tenths of a point,” according to The Advance. “Subsequent taste-offs and cook-offs in Savannah, Vidalia (which were victorious by the way), and other parts of the nation drew national attention,” the article continued.

The Walla Walla Growers Association, Frontier Savings and Loan, and the Union-Bulletin proposed pitting the two onions in a tasting competition before a “reputable panel of continued from page

judges” which would include the crowd at a baseball game and a more formal country club tasting including representatives from both communities.

The front page of The Vidalia Advance

on July 29, 1982, featured the headline: “Vidalians Attend Onion Joust.” Adjacent to the article was a photograph of Bill Ledford, his wife, Rose, Charlie Patterson, president of the Vidalia Chamber of Commerce, and Dick Walden, executive director of the Chamber as they loaded their car bound for the face-off. The accompanying story, written in a somewhat tongue in cheek style, read like the hype before a sports match: “Four staunch Vidalia Onion envoys left Vidalia today on a 300-mile jaunt that will take them into enemy territory— Walla Walla (Wash.) onion country and a severe bout between Georgia’s legendary Sweet Vidalia Onion of considerable fame and fortune and the Walla Walla contender.”

The first round was to be on July 31 as a major half-time event during a baseball game between the Walla Walla Padres and the Bend (Ore.) Phillies.

The Advance

article reported: “We are calling it our first,” said Nancy Wilson of the Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce. “The whole town will be involved with the two onions meeting head to head,” she continued. It sounded fierce, but in actuality the Vidalians were welcomed with open arms and treated like royalty at the friendly competition.

The Advance

article lamented: “Chances for a victory for the Vidalia onion on Walla Walla turf were calculated to be poor by Chamber of Commerce President Charlie Patterson as he prepared to leave this morning. ‘Yes, I think they have us at a disadvantage. But, we’ve been hoarding some super-biggies ever since we got the invitation to attend their onion fest.’ ” The Vidalia delegation took along 40 pounds of Vidalia selects.

The judging was close in three public balloting events. The last one was a private affair held at the Walla Walla Country Club. The club’s chef, who prepared a variety of dishes featuring onions from Walla Walla and Vidalia, was the only person who knew which dishes contained which onions. A panel of eight judges with representatives from each contending state sampled nine dishes. In the end, the Vidalia onion edged out the pride of Walla Walla!

The headlines in The Advance

on August 5, 1982, screamed: “Victory Sweeter in Walla Walla.” A subheadline crowed: “We Left ‘Em Crying in Walla Walla.”

Reporter Lisa James noted, “…when the scores were tabulated, it was the Washington variety that was ousted.” She noted that the Vidalia onion won in only three of the nine recipe tastings at the country club, but won big in the raw onion testing. “It just proves that you can’t tell them apart,” said Paul Hammock, emcee for the affair.

Yumion Takes a Bow July 1982 was a big month for the Vidalia Onion. It was featured during Vidalia Night at the Atlanta- Fulton County Stadium when the Atlanta Braves defeated the Pittsburg Pirates 6-4. The Braves regularly hosted “community night” at games when any one community bought 200 tickets and attended en mass. Joining the delegation from Vidalia was “Yumion,” mascot for the Vidalia Onion Festival. He was a relatively new character, having been created and named in 1980.

In a contest sponsored by the Vidalia Chamber of Commerce in association with the Vidalia Advance and Vidalia Broadcasting Company, a campaign was launched to name a character designed by local artist Wayne McMichaels. The mascot would serve as an ambassador at large.

The contest rules for naming the character specified: that the name contain “Vidalia Onion” or be identifiable with Vidalia Onion;” that the name must be representative of the agrarian life style and history of Toombs County; and the name must be recognizable and acceptable to the general public. The entries would be judged according to originality, and there was no age limit for participation. The winner would receive a $50 gift certificate from Belk-Matthews.

At the end of the contest, a former resident of Montgomery County then living in Daleville, Virginia, came up with a completely original suggestion: “Yumion.” The premise was that Vidalia Onions are “yummy.” The judges thought the name nailed the concept and fit the character. As the contest winner, Mrs. R. P. Thompson was happy to receive her gift certificate but regretted that she could not attend that year’s festival. She promised to visit in the future.

Bill Ledford espoused, in a March 13, 1980, piece announcing the mascot’s name: “He had everything! A gentle disposition, a worldwide reputation, is pleasing to the palate, as well as to the eye, has always been a giant among his peers, is a real money maker, smells better than any of his kind and is about the best public relations gimmick a city ever had. The Vidalia Onion had everything—except a name.”

Since 1980, Yumion has been busy representing Vidalia and its famous onion whenever the opportunity arises. The onion head in over-alls is odd-looking but lovable and has conquered many hearts through the years. Children love Yumion and adults always take a second look. “Well-Oiled Machine”

Local businesswoman Marsha Temples served as vice-president of the Vidalia Onion Festival Committee in 1996 and as chairman in 1997.

“The festival is a wellestablished tradition, and it works like a well-oiled machine,” Mrs. Temples said of the countless volunteer hours that go into the annual event. Of course, the festival has grown and changed over the years. She commented, “We used to have bowling, tennis and golf tournaments associated with the festival. A lot of that has gone by the wayside.” She fondly remembered some of the first concerts and street dances. “The first street dance featured Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs. When we had the Swingin’ Medallions, we blocked off city streets and had people dancing in the streets and having a really good time.” Concerts are still a favorite at the festivals and have brought in some big names in the music business.

In the past, celebration of the Vidalia Onion inspired events which included a rodeo, film festival, cooking school sponsored by Piggy-Wiggly, a five-mile bike ride, Onion Square Dance, and more. “Most of these events were put on by the same civic groups that still do these today,” Mrs. Temples said. Competitions from beauty pageants to onion eating are still popular, but perhaps the biggest attraction during each festival is the air show, which has brought in phenomenal crowds.