It's tractor time in Turin

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@thecitizennews.com

Each year the town of Turin gets together to celebrate being a community.

Residents celebrate by dancing in the streets with entertainment and refreshments Friday night and then having an old-fashioned tractor pull Saturday. This will be the sixth year of the event.

Friday night’s events begin at 8:30 p.m. in the Turin Town Square with a dance in the streets. The Bill Cabes Band will provide the music for most of the evening, and the gospel act The Wings will play during the intermission of the set from The Bill Cabes Band. The dance will last until 11:30 p.m.

Saturday starts with a parade of tractors down Ga. Highway 16. The Coweta County Mule Club will lead the way for the 125 tractors that will either be on display or will be part of the pull competition. The parade route goes down Ga. Highway 16 and back to the fire station. The competition, which begins at 11 a.m., will take place behind the fire station.

Some of the events featured at this year’s tractor pull are the Ladies Powder Puff Pull; the Slow Race, which consists of tractors trying to go as slow as possible without stopping the engine; the Hand Start race, which has two racers starting seated on the tractors, then jumping off to crank the tractor up and then jumping back on the tractor to race; and a children’s pedal race with toy John Deere tractors.

The weight class competition will begin at 3 p.m. and will feature tractors pulling anywhere from 3,000 to 12,000 pounds. The tractors will hook up to a weight sled and pull in heats until a winner is crowned.

Food will be provided by the tractor pull organizers. Each year the group handles the food duties in order to raise money for next year’s event. Proceeds from last year’s pull paid for a tent and the frame of a weight sled. Pull organizers are hoping this year’s pull will help them complete their own weight sled.
This year’s menu will include homemade barbecue sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs and soda. Turin Methodist Church will provide the sweets.

Admission is free and t-shirts depicting the farm and antique tractors will be available.