Harvest Fest Oct. 3
Shop Farragut/Farragut Business Alliance and Town of Farragut will be hosting Second Annual Harvest Fest, a free event to invite the community to enjoy food, live entertainment and beverages.
The festival, slated to take place from 3 to 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 3, in Village Green shopping center parking lot along Kingston Pike, will feature lots of local merchants, crafters – anybody who has something to show off — restaurants, food trucks and live music from a variety of performers.
“A lot of people can come out, come mingle, do some shopping, listen to live music and have an afternoon meal,” said Stephen Krempasky, Shop Farragut/FBA executive director. “Last year we had over 50 vendors and 7,000 attendees, and we expect more this year.
“We’ll have a big festival stand and adult beverages, which will be available for purchase,” he added. “We’ll have food trucks and we’ll have booths.
“Last year, in October, we had replaced Taste of Farragut with a fall festival at the old Kroger parking lot, which was free to the public.”
However, Farragut Primary School “already had a fall festival, so, to eliminate any confusion — and be a polite neighbor — we rebranded our festival to Harvest Festival, so the primary school could keep its (event) name,” Krempasky said.
While last year’s event took place in the old Kroger parking lot, he said this year’s event was moved because of the construction for the Town Center project at its former location.
Still, “we needed a big parking lot,” Krempasky added.
“Everyone’s excited about it,” he added. “Everyone’s talking about it again. It’s wonderful.”
Organizers decided to keep the event free this year to “encourage as many people as possible to come out,” to make sure price “is not a barrier for families to come enjoy the community,” Krempasky said.
“We stopped doing Taste of Farragut (which had ticket sales) because of COVID,” he added. “We want to encourage business here in Farragut, and we weren’t going to do something where we’re asking restaurants to give away food and then also charge people to come in.
“Restaurants are having a hard time just getting enough employees, so rather than do that, we’ll celebrate what we have.”
At the same time, Krempasky said Shop Farragut is seeking other fundraisers so it can continue to hold free events for the community.
