Parkesburg Community Day

Like so many artists before him, David Peyre-Ferry is toiling away at his day job (in his case, at the Jennersville Giant) while honing his craft every chance he gets.
His craft? Sword swallowing.
We caught up with David as he was performing at Parkesburg Community Day on Saturday, August 2. First he ran a blade across his tongue, warning spectators that if they got queasy at that point, they might not want to watch the rest. Then he tilted his head back and, sure enough, slowly lowered the sword almost to the hilt. After removing it quickly, he did the same with a sword with a wavy blade, telling the audience that they might be able to see the blade pressing out on his neck.
There were a few other swords in his portable wooden rack, and a hefty Craftsman screwdriver, but because he was performing all day long he did an abbreviated act.

Afterward David told us about some of the less-obvious perils of sword swallowing. He recently bought a pre-owned sword that had been used for stage combat, and even though he smoothed the metal as best he could, it still had a few rough spots. And in his profession, any imperfection whatsoever equals a major case of "sword throat." (He's going to have the offending blade glass-beaded.)
Parkesburg Community Day was a delight. The activities were held in three separate venues -- Minch Park, First Avenue and Main Street -- so we strolled through a fair amount of downtown Parkesburg, enjoying its architecture, people and dogs.
We had a fabulous dinner at Bread's BBQ and Soul Food at 321 Main Street: BBQ chicken, collard greens, baked beans and cornbread. We saw five Parkesburg cops there eating, which you just KNOW speaks to the quality of the food. The friendly husband-and-wife owners told us they'd had an extraordinarily busy day thanks to the festival and had already run out of string beans. We assured them we'd be back.
We also want to try the One Love Jamaican Restaurant, 402 West First Avenue. They had a booth across from their restaurant and the aromas coming from the food were amazing.
Walking down West Street to the car, we heard some terrific live music coming from Minch Park and went to investigate. It turned out that Syde 2, featuring Leon Spencer, was performing (Leon heads Kennett Square's borough council and was the borough's mayor for many years). We stayed for their whole set; what a pleasant surprise!
Well done, Parkesburg organizers! It was a splendid festival. My only suggestion would be that a map would've been really helpful, indicating the different locations and what was going on at each. As non-Parkesburg residents we were wandering around vaguely, wondering how to get to the Main Street venue, and were ready to give up when a helpful native showed us the way.