BROKEN BOW, Okla.-The annual Kiamichi Owa-Chito Festival of the Forest shows off both the natural beauty and cultural heritage of this southeastern corner of Oklahoma.
Held today and Saturday at Beavers Bend State Park just north of Broken Bow, the festival includes unique events that showcase the Choctaw culture that's such an important part of local life. Also, the festival celebrates the connection to the local forest itself and the logging industry associated with it.
Tonight's highlights include live music from headliners 7eventh Time Down (8:30 p.m.). Also performing are regional gospel acts like the Victory Life Youth of Broken Bow, Valliant 1st Assembly of God Praise and Worship Team and others who will perform after the Miss Choctaw Owa-Chito pageant at the Beavers Bend amphitheater, which starts it all off at 4:30 p.m.
Then Saturday's highlights for the festival main day include vendors from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., stickball, canoe races, archery shoots, horseshoes, bingo, casting contest, Miss Owa-Chito pageant, and games for children. Forestry competitions are a main draw, and they include log rolling, an ax throw, double-buck crosscut, limited power saw bucking, both men's and women's bow sawing and other similar logging activities.
Live music at the amphitheater is also a Saturday evening highlight with The Swon Brothers (8:30 p.m.) and opener Mike Ryan (7 p.m.) performing after the talent show winners at this 46th annual festival.
"Owa-Chito was meant to focus on our local Choctaw heritage and also our local logging and forestry heritage," said Charity O'Donnell, festival administrator and executive director at the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce, which oversees the bookkeeping and behind-the-scenes work for the festival.
Whether it's a Choctaw princess pageant or senior dancers singing old Choctaw songs, Native American culture is central to the festival's activities. And for logging, both Bull of the Woods and Crew of the Woods honor the very best loggers to participate. A student art show also focuses on these two themes.
"This year, new, we're adding kids' forestry competitions," O'Donnell said. That features mini versions of the adult events. Logging trucks will be displayed, too. The right time to see the logging events is in the morning from 8 a.m. onward.
"People love to come and watch the sawing and the cutting because it's really fun to watch," O'Donnell said, noting there's free entertainment both nights.
O'Donnell particularly enjoys watching the canoe races, too, and says traditional Native American food is another treat at the festival-cooked by locals. "Our Choctaw senior citizens from the area," she said.
There's also a motorcycle show at the Nature Center with live music by Wampuskat all day on Saturday. Cultural booths with basket weaving and other demonstrations are another way that the Choctaw culture is there for festivalgoers to enjoy.
The Swon Brothers are a Muskogee, Okla.-based country duo who landed in the Top 3 on "The Voice" in 2013. Mike Ryan is a Texas-based country singer-songwriter with two albums and an EP to his credit. The band 7eventh Time Down is a Christian rock outfit from Kentucky.
All of the events, except the 5K run and pageant, are free to enter, although parking passes are not; they are $20 in advance, $30 at the gate ($10 and $20 for motorcycles). They can be purchased in advance at the Broken Bow Chamber of Commerce (113 W. Martin Luther King or 580-584-3393) or the Idabel Chamber of Commerce. A free shuttle runs from the swim beach parking.
(More info and a full schedule of events: OwaChitoFestival.com.)