30th Annual Spring Folly 2023

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The Kernersville Spring Folly is a large event in Kernersville, North Carolina that attracts approximately 30,000 visitors from all over. This event is the perfect venue for commercial vendors looking to sell, promote and advertise to a wide array of visitors. The Kernersville Chamber of Commerce will accept approximately 100 spaces to businesses and commercial vendors for the 30th annual Kernersville Spring Folly. 

The first annual Spring Folly was held during May of 1993 and was set to coincide with the Tour DuPont bicycle race. The following year, Kernersville was the starting point for the final leg of this international event, which was televised world wide and seen by millions of viewers. In 1997, the Kernersville Spring Folly was named one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast by Southeast Tourism society.

One of the objectives of the Spring Folly is to make available good food. To serve this objective local civic clubs have agreed to provide a variety of foods and are the exclusive providers of food for the Spring Folly. This allows the community to showcase our civic clubs and volunteers while providing the civic clubs with an opportunity to generate monies which are in turn distributed back into the community in support of youth educational programs, scholarships and similar activities.

Arts and Crafts displays offer buying opportunities for visitors while at the same time provides an opportunity for artisans and craftsmen to display their talents and crafts. The Kernersville Arts and Crafts Guild organizes and directs this part of the Spring Folly. Under the Arts and Crafts Guilds direction this section of the festival has grown to over 100 individuals displaying and selling their hand produced crafts.

Over the years a section for commercial displays and sales has grown and is highly favored and supported by visitors. In addition to the sales of traditional festival fare, T-shirts, jewelry, do-it-yourself art for the kids, games, novelties, fun clothing, local commercial establishments are displaying and selling their products.

No festival is complete without entertainment, and the Kernersville Spring Folly is no exception. The entertainment is available on two separate stages and begins Friday at 6:00 PM through 10: PM, starting again Saturday at Noon and continuing until approximately 10:00 PM. 

Rides and entertainment for the kids, and the young at heart, are provided each year by Brinkley Entertainment. The number of featured rides amusement events increases every year.

The Spring Folly name was chosen for this festival as a play on the name of our most recognizable, historic and famous structure, Körner's Folly.

Körner's Folly was begun in 1878 as bachelor quarters, studio and stables for Jule Körner, grandson of Joseph Kerner, for whom Kernersville is named. The stables formed the right lower floors of the building and the bachelor quarters were situated on the left lower floors. The studios were on the upper floor and the carriageway cut directly through the center of the building, dividing the bachelor quarters and stables.

In 1886, Julie Körner married Polly Alice Masten and the home began to take on a different nature. In addition to becoming a family residence, Jule used the house to showcase his interior decorating business and a basis for his advertising design business, which featured the highly successful "Bull Durham" barn painting displays. Eventually the home was modified to include the first Little Theater in the United States. This heritage of arts and culture continues today through local civic organizations and the Kernersville Little Theater.

Excellent local restaurants serving festival goers include typical fast food, Seafood, Mexican, Steakhouses, Chinese, Italian, Green, French and American Family style.

Kernersville, the Heart of the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina is easily accessible by Interstate 40 and near-by Interstates 85 and 77. Surrounded by the larger communities of Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, and in the middle of North Carolina's manufacturing region, Kernersville with a current population of about 30,000 residents is truly "the Heart of the Triad".

Please make arrangements to visit Kernersville on the first weekend in May for good family fun provided for you by the good sponsors and businesses of Kernersville.

For additional information regarding this event, the Triad area, or Kernersville, contact Kernersville Chamber of Commerce at 336-993-4521, E-mail, or visit the KCC web site at www.kernersvillenc.com

Historic Profile of Kernersville

William Dobson, an emigrant from Ireland, bought 400 beautiful acres, in the early 1770's and built an inn where two roads crossed. One of these roads was the inter-colonial stage line route. Dobson's Tavern and Inn became very successful. President George Washington was a guest on June 2, 1791, while traveling from the nearby community of Salem.

In 1817, Dobson's Inn and the surrounding 1,032 acres of land was purchased by Joseph Kerner. The site of the Inn and accompanying store became known as Kerner's Crossroads.

On March 31, 1871 the community was incorporated as the Town of Kernersville. The population was 147 and the Town limits were set as three-quarters of a mile in all directions from the old Academy. A brass marker on South Main Street now marks the center of the original town.

Note: The original German spelling of Körner has been changed to today's common form as Kerner.