A survey of last year's festivalgoers showed they really missed the sheep-herding demonstrations. The sheep and their dog will return to the festival this year.

Photos courtesy of Lora Gordon/Radford University

The massing of the bands is an annual highlight of the Highlanders Festival. This year, the festival will feature three pipe and drum bands.

RADFORD -- Last year's Highlanders Festival was hardly over before Laurie Buchwald was talking to Radford University President Penelope Kyle about this year's festival.

"I didn't want to lose it," Buchwald said.

Buchwald, a member of Radford City Council and a booster of all things Radford, had heard the rumors about the university losing interest in the festival and she wanted to make sure that didn't happen.

"I'm not saying I believed any of the rumors," Buchwald said. "I was just like, 'You know what? I've got a big mouth and I've got some energy, so I'm going to go in there and sell this thing.' "

Buchwald told Kyle the city and the university should become equal partners in the project. She said she thought the festival, which had never turned a profit in its first 12 years, could be a moneymaker.

Kyle was "on board from the git-go," Buchwald said.

"The university is very interested in maintaining a tradition," said John Hachtel, Radford University's vice president for university relations. "I know there's been some talk that the university is not, but the university is putting its full support behind this.

"President Kyle has told me this is a major priority for the institution."

Buchwald and Hachtel co-chaired a committee that began meeting in February. Split evenly between representatives of the city and of the university, the group began planning what may be the biggest Highlanders Festival yet.

"We've had a really committed committee," Buchwald said. "It's worked out well."

Last year, two of the festival's most popular events, the parade and the sheepdog demonstration, were missing. And Radford University's homecoming -- which traditionally fell on the same weekend as the Highlanders Festival -- was moved to February.

Hachtel said that was all coincidence. The university's support for the event didn't change, he said. The date for homecoming did.

But he also said, "I think there was a sense that there needed to be a true partnership. And if you were going to continue with it, it needed to be a 50-50 split between the city and the university. There was a sense that the university needed to find the partner so that they could continue to do this."

They're continuing in a big way.

The festival begins Oct. 10 with a Scotch and beer tasting. There's a 5K run and a pancake breakfast early Oct. 11. There's a pipe and drum serenade planned for the breakfast. The parade will start at 11 a.m., marching through downtown to Moffett Quad on the university campus, where there will be music, plays, children's activities, clans, vendors, food, Scottish games, a falconer -- and, yes, sheepdogs.

The sheepdogs ranked high on a survey of popular events taken at last year's festival.

"We feel like we are bringing back the things people really missed or are continuing the things that people really enjoy," Buchwald said.

There are some new things, too. A pair of Celtic rock bands -- Scythian and Seven Nations -- will perform in Preston Hall's Bondurant Auditorium.

And, for the first time, the university's Appalachian Folk Arts Festival will be held in conjunction with the Highlanders Festival. The 23rd Appalachian Folk Arts Festival will feature a dozen or more people demonstrating their skills in everything from broom making to beekeeping to basket weaving. There will be music from 10 a.m. until about 5 p.m. -- except for noon to 1 p.m., when they'll be auctioning off items donated by the crafters and performers.

All the money raised will go to the Robert Glenn and Cora Green Toney Appalachian Studies Scholarship.

Oh. And it's Parents Weekend, too.

"There really is a multitude of events happening in and around the campus," Hachtel said.

The Highlanders Festival layout will be a little different this year, with the aim of giving people more room to set up a chair or spread out a blanket and stay a while. There's also an effort to tie the on-campus event more stoutly to downtown.

"I used to say the parade, once it left, it was just a giant sucking sound," Buchwald said.

Part of her goal is get Radford residents and businesses involved, so the Highlanders Festival becomes a festive weekend in Radford rather than an on-campus event. The festival stands at the confluence of the city's interest in promoting tourism and in solidifying relations with its economic engine, Radford University.

Besides, Buchwald really likes the festival.

"When I first moved back here in '97, Seven Nations was playing in the parking lot, on hay bales, under a tent," she said. "And I was all over it. It had the best feel. It's just a feel-good event which has the opportunity to do a lot for us."