Second annual Harvestfest set for Riverfront Park
This weekend, locals will be able to celebrate the beginning of fall and the end of harvest season with a gathering of area gardeners selling fresh produce.
The second annual Kootenai Harvest Festival is happening at Riverfront Park from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m on Friday.
Local produce and a locally-harvested dinner are the staples of the festival, with family-friendly activities extending all day including, live music, face painting, a straw-bale pile filled with candy, games and educational demonstrations on preserving food, composing, growing fungi and beekeeping.
The Friends of Scotchman Peaks and the Montana Wilderness Association began the event last year with the intent to give back to the community in a sustainable act of bringing local gardeners and business owners together to sell their products for one day, Ashley South said. South is the Montana Wilderness Association outreach coordinator and the founder of the Harvest Festival Committee.
“We were thinking about what we could do to give back to the community in a sustainable manner,” South said. They came up with the Harvest Festival with the idea that it would be a free event for local vendors to come and sell their produce and handmade crafts.
Last year, 150 people showed up to the festival, and this year South said they’re aiming for 200.
South said one of the other intents of the event was to give the Libby Community Garden a boost. Attendees can enter a raffle for a chance to win an apple tree, gift certificates and two heaping wheelbarrows full of locally-made goods and gardening supplies. All the proceeds from the raffle will be donated to the community garden in Libby and help support a sustainable community. Proceeds from the raffle items, donated by local businesses, will go back to the garden.
Local businesses also contributed to the event. According to South, Cabinet Mountain Brewing Company donated beer for a beer station, Whatz Up Food Shack will sell dinner at 5 p.m., made with ingredients purchased entirely from local farmers and producers, and AuntT’s Coffee Shop will offer fresh-squeezed lemonade. South said that Rosauers donated buns made entirely from local ingredients for burgers.
As part of the event, Cabinet Mountain Brewing Company will host a book reading and signing by author Jon Turk from noon to 3 p.m. Jon will give a presentation about his recent book “Crocodiles and Ice.” Turk will be available to sign books afterwards at Riverfront Park.
“This is the community event,” South said “We thank the community for supporting it.”
Live music begins at 2 p.m. with Rod and Anna Snyder. The Back Adit Band takes the stage at 5:30.
For more information, contact South at asouth@wildmontana.org or at 291-2708.
Reporter Bethany Rolfson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at Reporter@TheWesternNews.com.