Candy dancing this weekend

by Sharlene Irete

sirete@recordcourier.com

The 90th annual Genoa Candy Dance Arts and Crafts Faire featuring 300 exhibitors, 30 food vendors, and 3,000 pounds of Genoa's homemade candy is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Candy on sale at the fair includes fudge - with and without nuts - peanut butter cups, almond bark, peanut brittle, English toffee, and a one-pound candy selection. New on the candy menu this year is jarred hot fudge sauce. Also for sale is divinity made by Grandma's Fudge. Candy sales will be conducted inside the Genoa Town Hall.

"We have more activities for kids this year," said Genoa Town Manager Sheryl Gonzales. "We'll have magic, balloon-making, face-painting, clowns, a bungee jumper and shoot-outs.

"There's going to be a Western art gallery in the building next to the candy sales, with local artists with all Western art. We're trying to tie Candy Dance in with the Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival," Gonzales said.

Purchase tickets at the town hall for the Candy Dance dinner dance with David John and the Comstock Cowboys and Wylie & the Wild West, 4-10 p.m. Saturday, in Genoa Community Park. Cost is $30 adults, $15 children for a tri-tip or chicken dinner and dance music. Dance-only tickets are $15, available at the door, or at 782-8696.

"The dance is a sneak preview of the Genoa Poetry Festival, since the Comstock Cowboys and Wylie will be headliners," said Gonzales.

The second annual Genoa Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival is Mother's Day weekend, May 5-8, 2011.

Begun in 1919 by Lillian Virgin Finnegan to raise money for streetlights, the Candy Dance has grown from a dance and midnight supper, where the town ladies sold candy to raise money, to a two-day craft fair that attracts an estimated 30,000 visitors the last weekend of September.

Money raised through candy sales and the fair helps keeps town taxes low. Proceeds benefit the Town of Genoa, with more than $250,000 going toward the town budget.

The Candy Dance Arts and Crafts Faire is free. Parking in designated lots is $5 per vehicle. Free shuttle buses will be available at all designated parking lots. Shuttle buses will also be available for $2 round trip from Carson Valley Inn and the Douglas High School parking lot.

Information, genoanevada.org or 782-8696.