Kelly Kenoyer
Sweet Home will hold its annual Harvest Festival Saturday, Oct. 3, and there is plenty of fun to be had.
This year’s festival will look a little different because of COVID, but there will be music, pie and chili cook-offs, and a beer garden. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Event Planner Angela Clegg said this year will be special because the new playground in Sankey Park will be open just in time for the festival.
“We have a ton of activities for the kids,” she added, including pumpkin painting.
Jobe Woosley and Redwood Son will perform music at the event, with Redwood Son playing first, starting at 11 a.m.
The festival will be separated into three events, with separated gates, to adhere to COVID-19 requirements from the state: one for a cornhole tournament put on by Linn County Cornhole Association, one area for the chili cook-off and music hosted by the Road Maggots motorcycle group, and one put on by the city for vendors.
Each area will allow only 250 people, including volunteers and staff.
At the City Council meeting on Sept. 29, Clegg explained how the counts for each area would be maintained and monitored. Each person in the festival will be given a token, which they need to keep on them. When they move from one area to another, a token representing them is moved from one bin to another, and no more people will be allowed to enter when all 250 tokens are taken up. Visitors will all have to come in through a singular entrance before spreading out to enjoy the festival.
“The layout is different because of COVID, so people will have to adhere to that,” Clegg said.
There will also be plenty of hand sanitizer available, and attendees are asked to bring masks and to maintain social distance between groups outside their households.
City Manager Ray Towry said the city is doing everything possible to adhere to state guidelines.
“I think our community needs this, and I’m hearing the community wants this,” he said.
Twenty-five percent proceeds from the cornhole tournament and 100 percent of the proceeds from the chili cookoff will be donated to the families of Zach Maynard and Kennedy Swenson, the two young victims of a jet ski accident on Foster Lake earlier this year.
“We extended the hours and the cookoffs to make it successful for their families,” Clegg said.
The city will also have a beer cart at the event for the first time, though there won’t be a beer garden.
For more information about the festival, visit http://www.sweethomeor.gov and click on the banner at the top of the page.