Carolina town all set for annual international whistling competition
Baku, April 20 (AZERTAC). The little college town of Louisburg, North Carolina, welcomes whistlers for the 39th annual parade of puckerers. This year, more than five dozen contestants are coming from 20 states and nine countries as far away as Japan and Australia.
"It was there before we had language," convention founder Allen DeHart, 85, said of the musical art form, the skill of which he does not possess.
The convention grew out of a folk festival at Louisburg College, organized by retired history and psychology professor Allen DeHart. China and Japan each hosted, but this year the convention has officially declared Louisburg its permanent home.
Contestants began arriving Wednesday at the convention headquarters - temporarily in the basement of a county judicial building downtown. Each received a packet with an itinerary, map and a tube of ChapSitck.
Competitors from elementary school age to their 90s will vie in categories ranging from classical to popular to "allied arts" - which can includes bird calls, musical accompaniment and, yes, even magic tricks. People are scored on such things as resonance, intonation, articulation and "stage presence."
Terry Dryoff, a retired community college professor from Silver Spring, Md., was making his second attempt at the time, He placed "somewhere in the middle" in the classical and popular categories last year, but hopes to make his mark in the allied arts.
"I'm whistling, singing, playing harmonica and dancing," he said with a laugh. "Hopefully, that will get somebody's attention."
The convention ends Saturday with an awards ceremony and banquet.
Patricia Howell, who took over from DeHart this year as project director, acknowledges there are other whistling contests out there, including big ones in Japan, China and India. But, she adds, "They still send their people to Louisburg."
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