Bill McCleery

The Indianapolis Star

Mayberry Cafe is helping to host a two-day spring festival to celebrate %27The Andy Griffith Show%27

Christine and Brad Born bought the Danville restaurant in 1989 and used the TV show theme to boost business

Two %27Griffith%27 cast members have committed to participating in the May 17-18 event

As Deputy Barney Fife used to say: "This is big!"

The owners of the Mayberry Cafe in Danville, Ind., are helping to host a two-day spring festival that will celebrate "The Andy Griffith Show." Two cast members already have committed to participating in the May 17-18 event in Danville, said Christine Born, who co-owns the cafe with her husband, Brad.

The Borns bought the restaurant in 1989 when it was a struggling diner and turned things around using the TV-show theme. But this is the first time they have attempted to pull off a festival.

The event, said Christine Born, 50, is a thank-you to the fans of the show who have made their business a success.

"People kept asking us for years to do something like this," she said. "It always seemed too daunting. But I guess I was asked one too many times, so I went ahead and ran it up the flagpole."

Born proposed the idea at a meeting of the Downtown Danville Partnership, a publicly funded civic organization in this town of 9,000 23 miles west of Indianapolis. The proposal drew enthusiasm. Soon, several businesses came forward to help sponsor the event.

"People from out of town are already calling the (Danville) convention center about hotel rooms," Born said.

The TV show, which aired on CBS from 1960-1968, starred Andy Griffith as the wise and laid-back Sheriff Andy Taylor in a fictional Southern town. Don Knotts played Taylor's proud but inept sidekick, Deputy Barney Fife. The pace of life was easy. Neighbors were friendly. Humor was clean.

"Almost every fan has a favorite episode," Born said. "We all know a Barney or an Otis, and we all want to be more like Andy."

The two cast members expected at the show are Maggie Peterson, who played "Charlene Darling," and Rodney Dillard, a bluegrass musician who played one of four unnamed Darling brothers. The Darlings were a family from "up in the mountains" who made occasional appearances on the show.

"It's a surprise to me that after all these years there is still so much activity connected to it," Peterson said in an interview with The Indianapolis Star. "People seem just not to let go of 'The Andy Griffith Show,' which is great for me."

Last year, Peterson, 72, appeared at about 10 Mayberry-themed events around the United States, she said.

"I love doing it," Peterson said. "I love the people who love the show. It's a pretty special show, but the fans are pretty special too, so it works out great."

Besides the two cast members, the festival will feature nine nationally recognized tribute artists impersonating characters from the series, Born said, in addition to national bluegrass acts, food venues, a soap box derby and arts and crafts booths.

Also in the plans is the "Squad Car Nationals," in which owners of Mayberry squad car replicas drive and display their cars.

In past years, the city of New Castle hosted several "Mayberry in the Midwest" events, but the festival eventually was discontinued in that town amid organizational and sponsorship challenges.

Danville officials want the festival to become a successful annual tradition there.

"I think everyone recognizes it will be a nice feather in our cap to draw attention to our very nice community and all the efforts we've done to attract people to Danville," said Laura Parker, town planner and assistant town manager. "We want to show them what a great quality of life we have here."

Asked whether Danville is a modern version of Mayberry, Parker laughed.

"There are probably a lot of similarities," she said. "We're a small town just like Mayberry where everybody knows everybody and you know who the town characters are. But I think we allow our deputies to actually put bullets in their guns instead of keep them in their pockets."

Total cost of hosting the festival in its first year is expected to be about $40,000, said Parker, who also serves on the Downtown Danville Partnership's board of directors. The town gives about $60,000 annually to the partnership, using money from tipping fees generated from a private landfill operator.

The partnership plans to contribute $20,000 in seed money to help launch the event, Parker said. Private sponsorships will cover the rest. In time, organizers hope the festival becomes self-sufficient.

For more information, log on to mayberryinthemidwest.com and the Mayberry in the Midwest Facebook page.