Sep. 22—The community of Corning is gearing up for one of its premiere events of the year, the annual Olive Festival and Car Show, which this year is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 9 at the Corning Community Park and Lennox Soccer Field between Toomes and Houghton avenues on the south side of town.
However, highlights of the event start earlier that week with the first clue for the Missing Olive contest being posted at the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, Oct. 4, with additional clues posted daily until the hidden little wooden olive is found somewhere in the community.
The next day of festivities will be Food Truck Tuesday, 5-8 p.m. Oct. 5, between Fourth and Fifth streets in downtown Corning. Corning Recreation Director Christina Meeds is organizing the annual Bed Races to take place during the Food Truck event. Any club, organization or group interested in taking part in the bed races can sign-up on the City website, www.corning.org.
"We would love to bring this fun and crazy event back to the community," Meeds said. "We have three wheeled beds available for use, or you can make your own."
The Community Olive Mixer will be 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7, at Fourth and Solano streets, and will feature games, cornhole, booths, entertainment, beer and wine garden, and food.
Following the Friday, Oct. 8 Corning High School Homecoming Parade, which will march down the town's main street starting at 3 p.m., McBrayer's Hometown Cafe will host the Car Show's "Show and Shine" from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the cafe's parking lot, 1081 Solano St., where car owners can register their vehicle's for the next day's Car Show and event judging.
The 74th annual Olive Festival, hosted by the Corning Chamber of Commerce, will open at 10 a.m., with plenty for everyone to enjoy, including a Farmers' Market, craft and food vendors, live entertainment, Rotary Club Olive Drop, Kids Zone, olive pit spitting contest, raffles, organization and club booths, activities and more.
On that same day, starting at 7 a.m., the Corning Volunteer Fire Department is hosting a fundraiser Pancake Breakfast at the Fire Hall, 814 Fifth St.
The olive is Corning's official mascot with the affair between the town and the little green fruit lasting for more than 100 years, since the olive tree was first planted in the area around 1890.
Because of this close connection Corning is known as the Olive Capital and the Olive City (since 1923) and has hosted the annual Olive Festival for 74 years.
During the 1890s Mission olives were planted in Corning and the surrounding area, then in 1897 Nevadillo Blanco and Manzanillo varieties were planted by colonists. The growers became stockholders in the community's first olive processing plant — Maywood Colony Canning and Olive Packing Association.