Farm - City Days and the Buster Keaton Celebration - Iola, Kansas
Farm - City Days and the Buster Keaton Celebration - Iola, Kansas
Come to Iola for these celebrations and you will certainly not be disappointed. The Farm - City Days is held on the square the third weekend of October. A carnival runs throughout the celebration with a parade, arts & crafts show, car show, entertainment and other special events the day. The community links the agricultural and industrial lives of the area with a parade, re-enactments, a carnival, art show, demonstrations and tours and demonstrations by the fire and police departments, fish casting contests, Bowlus Fine Arts Center performances, horse and carriage rides, and hard boiled egg eating contest.
The celebration was begun in 1971 by the farming community to get the townfolks to better understand the farming community, then the city decided to join in and bring in the industry. This has grown to be a celebration enjoyed by everyone.
Address : 2 W Madison Ave, Downtown square
Phone : 620-365-5252 (Always call and confirm events.)
The community also has the Buster Keaton Celebration the third weekend in September at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
His parents had stopped in Piqua, Kansas in early October, 1895 while performing with a traveling medicine show. Myra Keaton missed playing the saxophone at the October 4th performance when Buster arrived,
delivered in a boarding house just across the street from the site of the evening performance. Young Keaton began appearing on stage with his parents at a tender age, became a child vaudeville star on Broadway, and earned a reputation as a comic genius in the world at large with a body of classic silent film comedy.
Keaton got into movies at 22 when he signed to co-star with Fatty Arbuckle. He went on to create a body of comic silent-film masterpieces. With the arrival of sound, Keaton’s career waned, but it revived in the 1950’s, and he made many film, stage and television appearances until his death in 1966.
Film comedian and director Buster Keaton was born in Piqua (Pick-way), Kansas, in 1895 while his parents were performing in a traveling medicine show. Each year Iola, KS, — ten miles east of Piqua — hosts a two-day celebration in Keaton’s honor.
People come from all over the world for this celebration. The movies shown and the music to accompany them are well worth the trip as well as enjoying the hospitality of this community.
The two day Buster Keaton Celebration runs all day and evening on a Friday and Saturday at the end of September. They make a point that it is not a film festival, but a "humanities" event. Although the evening presentation is almost all film (accompanied by piano or the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra), the morning and afternoon sessions are mostly presentations, interviews and panels. Although they make several humorous requests for donations, all of the events are free.
The Buster Keaton Museum in Piqua, Kansas is also a place yo will want to visit. It is located at 302 South Hill Street in Piqua, Kansas. The museum is open from 8 AM - 1 PM Monday thru Friday, other hours by appointment.
The collection for the museum is located in one room in the Water Department houses the collection since there isn’t enough activity to support a seperate facility and staff it. It would still be worth going to see if you are a Keaton fan.
Phone: 620-468-2385
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