Harvest Festival expands downtown for 10th year
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WNKY) — Bowling Green’s Harvest Festival returns Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for its 10th year with its largest footprint yet, stretching farther through downtown to make room for more arts and crafts vendors, food, live music and family activities.
Last year, more than 200 arts and crafts vendors were packed into about a block and a half. Telia Butler, Downtown Development Coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, said the crowd became so dense that people had trouble moving through the area and stopping to browse.
This year the festival is expanding along College Street from Fountain Square to the Small Business Accelerator. That will create more space for vendors and activities.
A bigger footprint with a local focus
Despite the growth, Butler said the heart of the festival remains its local businesses, food and artists.
“The heart of Harvest Festival is local shopping, local foods and local artists,” Butler said. “So it shows that the Bowling Green area supports that shop small feel, because that’s what all the vendors are. These are truly just people with side hustles or small businesses that are brick and mortars around the downtown area.”
Butler said the festival also gives people who may not have visited downtown recently a reason to see what is there now, from restaurants they may not have tried to stores they may not have known existed.
“And it shows just how important the power of local is to our community,” Butler said.
Four areas, four different experiences
The expanded festival will include four main venues, each with a different theme.
Fountain Square will host Fall Fiesta with Hispanic food trucks, Latino entertainment and performances. Circus Square will focus on families, with kid-friendly games, free carnival activities and the pumpkin drop.
SOKY Center will host Croptoberfest with food and drink trucks, arts and crafts vendors and live music. Hometown Harvest at the Small Business Accelerator will feature businesses based there offering specials and giveaways while inviting festivalgoers inside to see their shops.
A new twist on the pumpkin drop
One of the festival’s familiar attractions is also getting a new addition for the 10th year: the giant pumpkins will have names.
“And we’re naming the pumpkins for pumpkin drop this year,” Butler said. “Thursday there will be a survey posted to the city Facebook, and Friday, that survey will also be posted at the Ribbon Cutting and proclamation. We have at 11:00 at Circus Square, where the public can submit names for the six giant hundred pound pumpkins that we’re dropping.”
Butler said the idea is meant to give the community another way to take part in the pumpkin drop by helping give each pumpkin its own personality.
More new additions for year 10
Harvest Festival merchandise is also being offered for the first time.
T-shirts and stickers will be available only during the event and only while supplies last. Organizers are not selling them before or after the festival.
The wider footprint is also designed to draw people farther through downtown. Butler said the expansion helps highlight additional public parking near the Small Business Accelerator while introducing festivalgoers to another part of the downtown area.
