Taylor Wood, 13, didn't come all the way from Mobile to sit on a horseshoe chair, touch a milk snake and taste Wright's Dairy ice cream.

But she could have. She might have.

Saturday, Taylor and her sister Peyton, 10, instead molded clay into bowls at the Mountain Longleaf Festival in Anniston.

With a theme of "Rediscovering Lost Arts," quilting and music competed with nature lessons and crafts.

In the evening, a series of bands played as part of a Rally for Relay concert sponsored by McClellan Park Medical Mall.

"So far I've been able to enjoy the day as a spectator," Pete Conroy, director of the Jacksonville State University Field Schools, said Saturday afternoon.

"I was invited to hoot like an owl," he said, noting a wildlife event hosted earlier by the Anniston Museum of Natural History's Dan Spaulding.

Conroy said although the fourth annual festival, sponsored by the Field Schools, Family Links and Relay for Life, can feel like four different venues at times, it demonstrates that the Longleaf village is ideal for concerts.

"This has been an experiment to see if we can handle it from a logistics point of view," he said, as the Caribbean sounds of the JAXPAN steel drums played in the background.

Max Bittle, 3, and sister Katlyn Bittle paint mud cloth banners at Saturday's Mountain Longleaf Festival. Photo: Kevin Qualls/The Anniston Star

Pottery table organizer Tammy Beane said children had been huddling around her clay table all day.

She handed out directions to the young artists about firing the clay so that it will harden into pottery.

A short distance away, Jacksonville resident Harold Hall said sales of his $100 to $300 Native American-inspired flutes were slow.

The first-time festival vendor also had a collection of horseshoe crafts.

"It's like recycling horse shoes," he said.

Overall, Anniston resident Alice Boyer said she was impressed with the festival.

"It's outstanding, and great for the kids," she said, as her daughter Rebecca, 8, sat in a chair while the newspaper hat she wore was decorated.

The Wellborn teacher said she also planned to use the information she learned about pesticides and the environment in the other section of the festival, in her classroom.

Holding a milk snake that coiled around his arm, JSU Field Schools assistant Bobby Floyd said interacting with nature was another plus of the day — especially if children wanted their passport stamped.

"The trick is, to get their passport stamp here they have to touch the snake's tail," he explained.

• Mountain Longleaf Festival 2008 - a Celebration of Arts & the Environment - 4/9/2008

• 3rd Annual Mountain Longleaf Festival a Success - 5/4/2007

4/21/2008