For the first time in decades, the streets of downtown Pikeville were empty for the weekend of Hillbilly Days.

“This is a very surreal,” Shelebra Kinney said, the granddaughter of Hillbilly Days founder Shady Grady Kinney. ”You don’t know what you’ve got until you don’t have it and this morning driving into town. There’s hardly anybody out when it takes an hour just to drive 100 feet. There’s no vendors, there’s not singing, there’s no gospel, there’s no bluegrass. But there’s always going to be Hillbilly Days in Pikeville, Kentucky no matter what.”

The Kinny family made sure of that with a parade down Hambley Boulevard.

It was small with just Shelebra Kinney’s father Jimmy Kinney on a scooter with a Pikeville fire engine and a police cruiser. But to the family, Hillbilly Days is a state of mind that can continue every year.

“We look for zero turnout but here’s the thing, you got to use your imagination,” Jimmy Kinney said. “Hillbilly Days is all about having fun. So whether there’s anyone here watching or not, you can always pretend.”

To the people that got to see the surprise, it was a little glimmer of hope in what has been a rough few weeks.