If you want to understand Galax, spend some time at Felts Park. It’s the kind of place that can feel like a quiet neighborhood park on a Tuesday, then turn into a full-scale community venue when a big week rolls around. The layout makes that possible, and the story behind it adds a layer most visitors don’t notice until someone points it out.

Felts Park Starts as a Fairground

Before it was the park visitors know today, the park served as Galax’s fairgrounds. The Galax Agricultural Fair, established in the early twentieth century, was one of the town’s first large public gatherings and shaped the space in lasting ways.

That fairground past explains a feature visitors notice right away: the oval track. Today, it’s a paved walking and jogging loop, but originally it was built for horse racing, not foot traffic. During fair days, horses were stabled along the eastern edge of the grounds, with the track at the center of activity. Once you know that, the layout starts to make sense.

Walk the oval now, and you’re tracing the same curve that once framed race days and livestock exhibitions. The purpose has changed, but the footprint hasn’t. That continuity is part of what gives Felts Park its distinctive feel.

Accounts of the early fair describe it as an ambitious event for a young town, with races, exhibitions, and attractions that drew crowds from across the region. Specific details vary by source, so it’s best to think of the fair less as spectacle and more as proof that Galax needed a place designed to host large gatherings early on. Felts Park grew out of that need.

Felts Park Is Built to Hold a Crowd

Even on an ordinary day, you can tell this isn’t a pocket park. Felts Park covers roughly 28 acres and includes facilities designed for sustained, heavy use, including a covered grandstand, a permanent performance stage, athletic fields, courts, a pool, and open grounds that can shift easily from recreation space to event venue.

That “built for gatherings” feeling runs straight from the fairgrounds era into the present. It’s why large events work here without feeling forced. The space was built for people.

The park’s location reinforces that role. Sitting along South Main Street, Felts Park isn’t tucked away or hidden on the edge of town. It’s visible, central, and easy to return to, which is exactly what you want from a place meant to bring people together.

Felts Park and the Name on the Gate

Felts Park takes its name from Thomas L. Felts, a prominent local figure whose family played a role in Galax’s early civic life. Like many public spaces named in the early twentieth century, the park reflects a period when personal influence and community development often went hand in hand.

For visitors, the name matters less than what followed. Whatever its origins, Felts Park didn’t stay tied to one person’s legacy. Over time, it became a shared space shaped by how the community used it, year after year.

Felts Park During the Old Fiddlers’ Convention

For many visitors, Felts Park is synonymous with the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, held here each August. It’s the event most closely associated with the park and one of the strongest expressions of Galax’s musical identity.

What makes the convention work so well here is the balance between structure and openness. The grandstand gives the event a center of gravity, while the surrounding grounds allow music to spill outward. You hear tunes before you see who’s playing them.

During convention week, Felts Park doesn’t just host the event. It becomes a temporary neighborhood built around sound, routine, and shared enthusiasm.

Summer Nights That Feel Like Galax

The Old Fiddlers’ Convention may be the headline act, but Felts Park doesn’t save itself for one week a year.

Summer brings other traditions that change the park’s rhythm. The Fireman’s Carnival, hosted by the Galax Volunteer Fire Department, fills the grounds with rides, races, and fireworks. A championship rodeo transforms the space again, drawing a different crowd and a different energy.

The details shift, but the role stays the same. Felts Park is where Galax comes together when it wants to mark time, celebrate, or simply be in the same place at once.

Winter Lights at Felts Park

The winter season at Felts Park is marked by High Country Lights. This large, synchronized Christmas light display draws strong regional crowds from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Seasonal attendance typically reaches 65,000 to 70,000 visitors, making it one of the area’s most popular winter attractions. The display is primarily designed as a drive-through experience, with pedestrian access limited within the lighted areas due to the electrical infrastructure. A designated color tunnel and photo area offer a safe place to step out of the car. It’s a different kind of gathering than a summer festival. Still, it serves the same purpose: giving people a reason to come together when the days are short.

The Park Between the Big Weekends

Here’s what many visitors miss: Felts Park works even when nothing special is scheduled.

The walking track stays busy. Tennis, pickleball, and basketball courts and fields see regular use. The Recreation Center keeps the park active year-round. On quieter days, you can see the underlying structure without distractions.

Look at the oval and understand its racing past. Notice the open space and picture the grandstand packed. Walk a lap and let the park be what it is the rest of the year. That’s when its history feels most visible.

Visiting Felts Park

If you arrive during a major event, remember that Felts Park is a community space first. Watch how people move. Notice where they gather naturally. The park is used to visitors, but it still runs on local rhythms.

If you arrive on an ordinary day, the oval track makes a good starting point. One lap gives you a clear sense of the park’s shape and scale. From there, it’s easy to understand how the same ground can shift from everyday use to something much bigger.

The Simple Takeaway

Felts Park is Galax in public. It’s where the town shows up for music, summer nights, seasonal traditions, and everyday movement when nobody’s selling tickets. Its fairgrounds past still shapes the space you walk today, and that continuity gives the park its character.

If you want one place that explains how Galax gathers, start here.

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Wayne Jordan is a Galax-based writer and storyteller. His Scots-Irish ancestors settled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1760, and he has deep roots there. The author of four books, Wayne is a retired Senior Editor for WorthPoint Corporation, a long-time columnist for Kovels Antique Trader Magazine, and a contributor to regional newspapers and travel publications. He blogs at BlueRidgeTales.com.