People flock to the Harvest Moon Festival

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The final day of summer, 2024 included fun, food, live entertainment and much more in downtown Van Wert on Saturday.

Main Street Van Wert’s Harvest Moon Festival brought the summer to an end and it packed a lot in a three block area of Main St. While temperatures were a bit on the warm side, especially for late summer, the turnout was very good.

“We’re happy that everybody came out,” Main Street Van Wert Executive Director Mitch Price said. “We love this fall event – it may be a little hotter than we’d like but but we can’t help that. We’re just really happy with the turnout and we’re happy with the city, our volunteers and Cooper Farms, our No. 1 sponsor.”

In all, the six-hour downtown event featured nine food trucks, 25 market vendors, a kids zone, adult games, a Freedom Cruise car show, a class reunion or two, and four hours of live music by local band Major Snafu.

Price noted a lot of work went into the festival and planning began months ago.

“I think people think it’s just a turnkey event but there’s a lot of planning that goes into it,” he said. “We have a great committee and a great board that I work with and we’re blessed to have great city leadership that when I call and ask to do something they pretty much say yes. They allow us to shut Main St. down and we really appreciate that, we don’t take advantage of that relationship, we need that relationship in order for us to get to where we want to be in the future.”

“We’re trying to take it to the next level and we’re trying to build up Main St. and we appreciate the businesses and the police department too for helping us out,” he added.

While the Harvest Moon Festival brought the curtain down on summer, Price noted the next big event will occur next month – October 26 to be precise, with Main Street Van Wert’s annual trick-or-treat event, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. that day at various downtown businesses. After that, the annual Christmas display will be at Fountain Park in late November and throughout December.