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Daisy Duke, toilets and rednecks

Toilets racing in the streets would be a strange sight for many small towns, but not in Weissport.

The seventh annual Weissport Redneck Festival wrapped up its traditional three-day stint Sunday in the borough's park.Coordinator Duane Dellecker said the event was another success in 2014, despite concerns that traffic flow and parking would be a problem due to work on the Thomas J. McCall Memorial Bridge routing southbound vehicles through Weissport."The attendance is better than we expected," Dellecker said. "Actually, I think the detour helped because more people had to come through town and they ended up stopping at the festival. So, thank you, PennDOT."Saturday was the highest attended day, Dellecker said.The Miss Daisy Duke contest, held in the evening, drew a standing-room-only crowd through most of the park."I'm estimating we had around 5,000 people throughout the day," Dellecker said. "They come for a couple hours and leave. There is nice crowd turnover, however, and it stays pretty steady."Sunday afternoon's events included the Big Wheel race for youngsters 4-8, and the ever-popular chariot race, during which two-person teams race toilets-on-wheels down Park Street.Vendors lined the park selling a variety of items. Rich Gross offered custom-made license plates and other handcrafted products.His best seller was a slate sign listing the 10 redneck commandments including, "No Foolin' 'Round With Another Feller's Gal," and "Don't Be Hankerin' Fer Yer Buddy's Stuff.""I sold one of those signs to a guy from Kentucky who is working on the McCall bridge," Gross said. "He said he's going to take it home and they might hang it in his church there."Sandra Morton, of Lehighton, is a repeat festival visitor who lauded event organizers for keeping it affordable."It's just some good-natured fun and we have a good time coming every year," Morton said."It has a lot of things you can't find at your typical festival. And it always helps when it doesn't cost anything to get in. That makes a big difference for a lot of families around here when you compare it to fairs." Proceeds from the festival are poured back into the community.Dellecker said he hopes one of the things the money can pay for is complete underground electrical service throughout the Weissport Park."Right now, we have service running underground to the main stage area, but we want to extend service to all corners of the park," Dellecker said."It's going to cost around $10,000 to do that, but our goal is to keep doing things to improve Weissport and this community. This is the perfect place for a festival like this, and we'll work to keep it that way."

Jarrad Hedes/Times News Richard Gross works on custom license plates Sunday afternoon during the Weissport Redneck Festival.