Canton's Labor Day festival began in 1906 as a celebration of the Western North Carolina worker whose grit and fierce determination led to the construction of the Champion Fibre Company paper mill that would persevere through a great depression, two world wars, and two buy outs.
Canton is home to one of longest-operating mills in the United States and is uniquely positioned adjacent to a downtown. Like the mill, the Canton Labor Day Festival has not missed a beat. Every year the mill workers and broader community celebrate the festival, continuing Canton's bragging rights of hosting the longest-running Labor Day festival in the south.