Legend of Lickskillet
T
he City of Oxford’s second annual
Legend of Lickskillet Music & Heritage
Day Festival kicks off May 14 on Main
Street, with entertainment, vendors and
food for the whole family.
The festival’s name hearkens back to local
history, with Oxford’s founding in 1830 as
Lick Skillet. According to local legend, a man
stopped in town to ask where he could get
dinner and was directed to a home where
the man did manage to eat, but when asked
if he’d been fed replied that he’d had to “lick
the skillet.” Did it mean the food was so good
even the skillet tasted great? Or maybe there
wasn’t much to go around, so the man licked
the skillet to get full? There’s also the distinct
possibility that the name came first and a
story to match followed after, but that’s for
the history buffs to sort out.
Startlebark and rock band Secondhand
Jones.
Not least of all, a ferris wheel will give visitors
a view from the top of town, where decades
of forgotten frisbees have been lost to time.
The festival runs from 10-4 p.m. on May
14 on Main Street and admission is free of
charge. Stay up to date by checking in at the
Lickskillet Festival’s Facebook page. ✻
Special guests for the year include Beyond
Wings, a Tennessee-based circus troupe that
handles everything from acrobatics — think
Cirque De Soleil-style gymnastics, complete
with aerialists air-dancing on hanging
ribbons — and high-energy fire dancing,
with whirling fire pots, fire-eaters spitting
infernos into the sky and fire hoops spinning
away.
Live, local bands will also keep
entertainment going for visitors, with
performances by Steel Legacy, who perform
covers from the 70s-90s, Americana band
8
May 2016
INSIGHT