Each year the Ava Gardner Museum celebrates Ava's life and career by hosting the Ava Gardner Festival. This annual event includes heritage tours, screenings of classic Ava Gardner films, and special exhibits.

This year's festival will kickoff during the Ava Gardner Festival Gala on Friday evening, October 9th and will continue Saturday, October 10th from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. The theme for the fifth annual festival celebrates the special relationship Ava shared with Ernest Hemingway.

In partnership with the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield, community members will be encouraged to participate in a Hemingway Reading Series in the months leading up to the festival. In August, residents will read the short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and in September, the novel The Sun Also Rises will be read and discussed. During her career, Ava Gardner starred in the cinematic adaptations of these two Hemingway works, in addition to the film The Killers, which was another Hemingway short story.

After having read and discussed these works, community members will be invited to two events to celebrate the conclusion of their Hemingway study. On Thursday, October 8th at 6:30pm, Jason W. Faulkner, a professor in the English department at East Carolina University, will present a lecture about Hemingway at the Ava Gardner Museum. Mr. Faulkner's Master's thesis discussed Hemingway's female characters, focusing on Lady Bret Ashley of The Sun Also Rises (played by Ava Gardner in the film). On Saturday, October 10th, community members will be able to watch the film adaptations of these works at the Public Library of Johnston County and Smithfield.

The Hemingway Reading Series Reader's Guides, the lecture, and the film screenings will be provided to the community at no charge.

Other activities scheduled during the Ava Gardner Festival include the Gala on Friday evening, October 9th at which time a special exhibit called Ava and Hemingway will be unveiled. On Saturday, October 10th, in partnership with the Johnston County Heritage Center, tours of points of interest in Ava's life will be scheduled throughout the day. These tours will be hosted by Doris Rollins Cannon, Johnston County native and Ava Gardner biographer, and Rick Lotz, Chair of the Museum's Board of Directors.

For more information about the festival and the Hemingway Reading Series, please call the museum at 919-934-5830.

The Ava Gardner Museum is located in downtown Smithfield, at 325 E. Market Street and more information may be found on the museum website, www.avagardner.org or by calling 919-934-5830. The museum is open Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm and Sunday 2pm-5pm with admission of $6.00 adults, $5.00 seniors and groups and $4.00 children.