Over the past few days many people have asked me some form of the question: "What is the Yamboree?" I have decided to address the question and share the epicness.
The East Texas Yamboree is essentially a festival to celebrate the yam. It is in Gilmer, Texas which is where I am from. There is carnival that comes and sets up around the town square. There is a school parade on Friday and the Queen's parade on Saturday. Schools let out for Thursday and Friday. The highlight of it is the Queen's Coronation Pageant. This is when the Yam Queen is crowned. Senior girls run for Queen by selling tickets. Whoever sells the most wins. The rest of the girls make up the Queen's Court. When I say these girls dresses are big, that's pretty much an understatement. This is completely hardcore. They even have a traditional bow that the Queen does. The Coronation is on Wednesday and Thursday. There is a Queens Ball, a Barn Dance and a Street Dance.
There is of course a yam contest as well. Other contests include: Yam Pie Contest, Homecanning Contest, Photography Contest, Essay & Poetry Contest, Fiddler's Contest, etc. And of course there is the buying and showing of Livestock.
To get the full idea of yam queens, their dresses and the bow here is a link to the rehearsal pictures from this year. I'm also putting a link to the Yam website. I brought my Flip video camera this week so there will be footage coming.
http://ruelfelipe.zenfolio.com/p389727622/h2dd0e269#h3a1fcda1
http://www.yamboree.com/joomla/
Peace.
Wow, that's a serious bow. A wow bow. Bow wow. Kind of like ShamWow, but it's a BowWow. And the guys dressed as yams...YamWow!
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