Staff photo by Jessica Cross

The two-day annual Autumn Gold Festival drew a large crowd this past weekend to Coker Creek.

Previously held on the grounds of Coker Creek Village, this year's festival was at a new location on the campus of Coker Creek Elementary School and the nearby Ruritan Club proper­ty. The festival showcased a variety of arts and crafts vendors, speciality food choices, gold pan­ning, children activities and more. 

Perhaps the highlight of the two-day event was the annual Autumn Gold Festival Queen Contest on Sunday. There were four categories of the contest (Doll Princess, Princess, Junior Queen and Queen) and an overall winner and two runner-ups were crowned in each category. 

Emily Moses (far left) was crowned the 2012 Autumn Gold Festival Queen. She is pictured with second runner-up Taylor Moses (middle) and first runner-up Cora Grant. 

See more photos from the Gold Festival on page 16 of today's paper, Oct. 17, and in the Sunday, Oct. 21, edition of The Advocate & Democrat and The People Paper.