Fine-feather festival returns

• Downtown Pavo will play host to the 21st annual Peacock Festival Saturday.

Cathy Higgins

PAVO — Southwest Georgians looking to celebrate one of the world’s most ornate birds should head to Pavo this weekend for the 21st annual Peacock Festival.

The festival will be held 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at the Peacock Center on McDonald Street.

The event features a parade, donkey-drop contest, musical entertainment, drawing for a quilt, children’s activities and booths with vendors selling food and crafted items.

Held on the second Saturday of each May, the Peacock Festival isn’t so named for the jewel-toned fowl. Instead, it honors the heritage of Pavo, a Southwest Georgia town whose history dates back more than a century.

According to information provided on the festival’s Web site, the town of Pavo’s name had originally been Mitchell, in honor of one of two prominent resident families.

“The Peacocks, being the other prominent family, said they wanted the town to be named for them,” Pavo Civic Club Vice President Diane Ferguson stated on the site. “But the rest of the town did not agree.”

In a compromise, the town was named Pavo, which is Latin for Peacock.

Today, the annual Peacock Festival lauds that historic compromise. And the plumed bird of the same name serves as its mascot.

For more information, call (229) 859-2110 or visit www.peacockday.com.

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