MOUNTAIN VIEW — It isn’t fall in Mountain View without pinto beans cooking over a fire and outhouses speeding down the street.
The 34th annual Bean Fest & Great Arkansas Championship Outhouse Races will take place in Mountain View on Oct. 28 and 29. The festival is free to attend.
“It’s kind of a fun way of getting together and listening to music, enjoying beautiful arts and crafts, great food and, of course, our crazy outhouse races,” said Tori Epperson, executive director of the Mountain View Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s mostly a family-fun event that’s meant to lighten up the fall season.”
The festival will begin Oct. 28 with the opening of the artisans market and live music on the Courthouse Square, and the Bean Fest and Outhouse Races will take place at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Oct. 29, respectively. The festival will also include 30 vendors, a talent show and an inflatable play area for children.
Each Outhouse Race team includes two pushers for the outhouse and one driver. Awards will be presented for the most creative costumes and the most creative outhouse.
“They have to be designed like an outhouse, and they do sit on a toilet seat,” Epperson said. “They have some really creative ones. There’s no motor allowed to it, no battery-operated [vehicles] — no any kind of that stuff.”
David Potts, who has competed in the Outhouse Races for the past eight years, said his team usually uses a Dukes of Hazzard theme. He said people typically view the races because of the novelty of the cars and the costumes.
“I think that’s why people attend,” he said. “I don’t think there’s interest in who is the fastest; I think they like to look at the interesting cars.”
Potts also said the course isn’t difficult to complete.
“It’s a straight course like a drag race, two cars at a time and double elimination,” he said. “I would imagine it’s 200 yards at the most.”
Potts said he encourages teams to have fun with their outhouse designs.
“I would say pick the fastest runners you can find and the lightest driver, and keep the car as light as you can, but don’t give up on the artistic side of it,” he said.
Epperson, who became the new executive director of the chamber in March, said she hasn’t yet experienced the festival.
“It’s become fiercely competitive,” she said. “I’ve had several people calling to make sure they still have their slot. They really enjoy that crisp fall morning, getting out there, lighting the fires. Everybody who attends enjoys it because they get all the free beans afterward and the cornbread.”
For the Bean Fest, a bean-pot trophy will be awarded for the best cook, and prizes in the fest will also be awarded to the best-decorated cooking spot and the best costumes.
About 5,000 to 6,000 people attend the event each year, Epperson said.
“I think they enjoy the fact that they can bring their families down to the square and just spend the day in a fun environment, where they can feel safe and [be taken] back to a simpler time when they’re not so rushed,” Epperson said. “It just kind of gives everybody a chance to slow down a little bit and enjoy a change in the season.”
Epperson, who is originally from Memphis, had lived in the Arkansas Delta for about 15 years before moving to Mountain
View this year. She said living in Mountain View comes with a sense of community.
“There is a jewel-box quality to the Mountain View area,” she said. “I’ve not really seen it in the small towns like I do here. Everybody is friendly.
Everybody will go out of their way to help a neighbor, but also to help a visitor. You feel like you’ve come home when you come to Mountain View. There’s a saying that they have here: ‘You visit the first time, but you end up staying the second time.’”
Epperson said the chamber is still looking for teams to sign up for the Outhouse Races. The cost to enter the race is $40 in advance or $50 the day of the race. To enter or for more information, email mvchamber@mvtel.net.
Staff writer Syd Hayman can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or shayman@arkansasonline.com.